In brief: Russia defeats U.S., moves to Fed Cup final

Defending champion Russia advanced to its fourth Fed Cup final in five years after Vera Zvonareva rallied to defeat Vania King 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in singles Sunday at Moscow.

Russia had an unbeatable 3-0 lead over the United States in their semifinal World Group series before Ahsha Rolle scored the first point for the Americans, defeating Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-4.

Russia will face five-time champion Spain in the Fed Cup final in September.

Nuria Llagostera Vives defeated Peng Shuai 6-4, 6-4 in the singles match Sunday to give Spain a 3-0 advantage over China and assure the five-time Fed Cup champion its first berth in the final since 2002.

Anna Chakvetadze and Svetlana Kuznetsova led Russia to a 2-0 sweep of the opening singles Saturday, beating King and Ahsha Rolle respectively.

Zvonareva substituted for Kuznetsova, who was originally drawn to play. Zvonareva has improved to 4-2 in the Fed Cup after the fourth straight win. King is 3-4.

Russia has won three titles in the last four years and is unbeaten at home since hosting France in 2003.

The United States has won a record 17 Fed Cup titles, the last in 2000.

“Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer 7-5, 7-5 to win the Monte Carlo (Monaco) Masters for a fourth straight year. Nadal has now beaten the top-ranked Federer three times in the final, improving his clay-court record over the Swiss star to 7-1.

Running

Marathon record set

Irina Timoveyeva won the Hamburg (Germany) Marathon in a record time.

The 38-year-old Russian finished in 2 hours, 24 minutes, 14 seconds to break the Hamburg record shared by Robe Tola of Ethiopia and Katrin Doerre-Heinig of Germany by 21 seconds.

Many runners struggled to cope with the warm weather as temperatures reached 72 degrees.

In the men’s race, David Mandago of Kenya won in 2:07:23 to end the four-year reign of Spaniard Julio Rey.

“Chema Martinez won the Madrid (Spain) Marathon (2:12:42) in his hometown for his first career win in the event. Rael Kiyara Kguriatukei of Kenya won the women’s event in 2:36:15.

“Abel Kirui set a course record (2:07:38) at the Vienna City (Austria) Marathon. Luminita Talpos of Romania won the women’s race in 2:26:43.

Miscellany

U.S. field hockey wins

The U.S. women’s field hockey team is headed to the Beijing Olympics after defeating Belgium 3-1 in the final of the qualifying tourney at Kazan, Russia.

Kayla Bashore deflected Kelly Doton’s penalty corner to put the U.S. team ahead in the 18th minute.

Anne-Sophie van Regemortel tied it for the Belgians, before U.S. captain Kate Barber’s pass across the face of the goal allowed Tiffany Snow to tap in her sixth goal of the tournament. Barber made it 3-1 with 12 minutes left.

“Kanstantin Sivtsov of Belarus, racing in the United States for the first time, won the Tour de Georgia at Atlanta, while his teammate, New Zealand’s Greg Henderson, won the race’s final stage.