Intro:

Action from the final day of the Fed Cup World Group round one as France beat Italy, Russia beat Poland and Germany beat Australia.

Script:

Teams right across Europe were battling for a place in the Fed Cup semi-finals on Sunday, the last day of the World groups.

Nowhere was the action as dramatic as Genoa, Italy led 2-0 going into this but Amelie Mauresmo's French team hit back, she selected Kristina Mladenovic ahead of French number one Alize Cornet and it paid off as she beat Sara Errani 6-4, 6-3.

Caroline Garcia then came from a set down to beat Camila Giorgi 4-6, 6-0, 6-2.

The winners were then paired together in the decisive doubles and they thrashed Errani and Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-2.

Like Italy, Russia led 2-0 going into the final day of their match against Poland in Krakow, that meant Agnie Radwanska had to beat Maria Sharapova in the singles but the Russian came out on top, 6-1, 7-5.

It was all to play for in Stuttgart, Germany and Australia were level after the first day but roared on by home support, Angelique Kerber put the Germans in front with a 6-2, 6-4 win against Sam Stosur.

Andrea Petkovic finished off the job, although she had to dig deep to see off Jarmila Gajdosova 6-3, 3-6, 8-6.

So the winners advance to the last four, the losers will now face a play-off later this year to decide whether they will remain in the world's top group.