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WORCESTER, MASS. — Venus Williams returned from a five-month layoff and Serena Williams and Christina McHale won singles matches Sunday, giving the United States a 5-0 thrashing of Belarus in the first round of the Fed Cup.

The Americans head to a playoff in April in hopes of playing their way back into the top tier of Fed Cup after being bounced out last year.

Venus Williams and Liezel Huber completed the rout with a doubles victory, defeating Darya Kustova and Anastasiya Yakimova 6-1, 6-2.

This was Williams’ first sanctioned match since the opening round of the U.S. Open. She had been diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome, an autoimmune disease that can cause fatigue and joint pain and forced her to withdraw from the Open.

McHale won in straight sets for the second consecutive day, beating Darya Kustova 6-0, 6-1 to put the U.S. up 4-0.

Serena Williams had already guaranteed a U.S. victory earlier in the day by defeating Anastasiya Yakimova 5-7, 6-1, 6-1. Serena blew a 4-1 lead in the opening set and slammed her racket on the court after one point, then returned to form in the next two sets. She didn’t allow a point in two straight games of the final set, which she closed with an overhead slam.

“That just goes to show you how frustrated I was out there today,” she said. “I haven’t done that in a match in a long time.”

Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, the Australian Open champion, sat out all four singles matches with a back injury.

Article source: http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20120206/SPORTS/302050090/US-routs-Belarus-advance-Fed-Cup

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