Americans fall behind in Fed Cup final

REGGIO CALABRIA, Italy --- Alexa Glatch and Melanie Oudin lost in straight sets Saturday to give Italy a 2-0 lead over the United States in the Fed Cup final.

Glatch lost to Flavia Pennetta 6-3, 6-1, and Francesca Schiavone rallied after a two-hour rain delay to defeat Oudin 7-6 (2), 6-2 on the outdoor red clay court at the Rocco Polimeni club.

"She came out and started playing a lot better and wasn't missing anything when she came back out," Oudin said. "She changed her game a little bit. I did the best I could."

Reverse singles and doubles were scheduled for today in the best-of-five series.

The U.S. has won all nine of its previous meetings with Italy. But the Americans are without Serena and Venus Williams, who opted not to play after meeting in the season-ending tour championships last weekend in Doha, Qatar.

Oudin, who reached the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, faces Pennetta in the opening singles today.

The 11th-ranked Pennetta used her consistent baseline game to wear down the 132nd-ranked Glatch, breaking early in the first set to set the tone, then cruising in the second set.

The 6-foot Glatch likes to rely on her serve, but she won only won 43 percent of the points on her first serve.

"My serve kind of let me down," Glatch said. "I didn't win a lot free points off my serve, so it made it very difficult to hold serve."

In the tiebreaker, Schiavone's bigger serve and more powerful groundstrokes made the difference, and she landed an inside-out backhand return winner on the line on her first set point.

"I had lots of chances in the first set, so losing was pretty tough," Oudin said. "But I fought hard throughout the whole match."

JUST FINE: Top-ranked Serena Williams will most likely receive a "significant" fine but no suspension for her U.S. Open tirade, the president of the International Tennis Federation said.

Grand Slam administrator Bill Babcock is expected to give his recommendation to the Grand Slam committee, which probably will announce the sanction Monday or Tuesday.

"I don't think (an Australian Open ban) would make much sense, because it would penalize the people handing out the punishment," Francesco Ricci Bitti told The Associated Press on Saturday. "For the Grand Slam committee to exclude her from a Grand Slam doesn't seem likely."

The Grand Slam committee is composed of Ricci Bitti and the four Grand Slam presidents.

Williams was fined $10,000 after her profanity-laced outburst at a lineswoman during her semifinal loss to Kim Clijsters in September. A fine from the ITF could be much greater.

"A significant financial penalty makes much more sense. But it has to be significant enough for the fans (to appreciate) it," Ricci Bitti said. "Of course it may not be significant for Serena Williams, who earns tens of millions."

VALENCIA OPEN: In Valencia, Spain, top-seeded Andy Murray held off fourth-seeded Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 to reach the final against Mikhail Youzhny.

The unseeded Youzhny defeated second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in an all-Russian semifinal.

SWISS INDOORS: In Basel, Switzerland, Roger Federer will play Novak Djokovic in the final in a bid for a fourth title in a row in his hometown tournament.

Federer defeated childhood friend Marco Chiudinelli 7-6 (7), 6-3 in one semifinal. Earlier, Djokovic beat Radek Stepanek 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-2.