Petra Kvitova put the Czech Republic into a sixth Fed Cup final in eight years as her win against Angelique Kerber on Sunday sealed a 3-1 semi-final victory over Germany.
Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion, needed just 58 minutes to power her way to a 6-2, 6-2 win over Kerber and give the Czechs an unassailable lead in the tie.
After the Czechs had gone 2-0 up on Saturday, Julia Goerges had earlier given hosts Germany a brief life-line with a gritty win over Karolina Pliskova in Stuttgart.
“I am very relieved. I was getting nervous before this game,” admitted Kvitova following her win having earlier watched Pliskova lose.
“We had a great position from yesterday, I think Julia played a really good match. I knew we still needed one point from our last two games and I just did my best.”
The Czechs will meet France or the USA in the November final.
The final doubles tie between Tatjana Maria/Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Barbora Strycova/Katerina Siniakova is now a dead rubber.
Goerges had earlier pulled the Germans back into the tie with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Pliskova.
However in the final singles rubber, Kerber failed to match Goerges’ ambition and conceded three break points to Kvitova in the first set.
Kvitova imposed herself on the German in the second set for a convincing win.
The Czech Republic can now make plans for the November final having won the Fed Cup for three straight years from 2014-16 until the USA won the 2017 title.
