SOCHI, Russia -- Russia reached the Fed Cup final Sunday, sealing victory at home over Germany in the last doubles rubber.
Elena Vesnina and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova won 6-2, 6-3 against Andrea Petkovic and Sabine Lisicki to stop a German comeback that had seen them bounce back from 2-0 down in the best-of-five tie after Saturday's play.
Russia's win sets up a match with the defending champion Czech Republic, which beat France 3-1 to reach the Fed Cup final for the fourth time in five years.
"I was nervous, but I was nervous in a good way," said Vesnina, who was playing in her hometown, last year's Winter Olympics host city of Sochi.
"Being a team is very important to us ... and the home support also helped."
As the Russians celebrated with a lap of honor waving the flag, Germany's Petkovic wept and was comforted by her teammates. "It was definitely a very disappointing stay [in Sochi]," Petkovic said.
Russia's win sets up a match with defending champion the Czech Republic, which beat France 3-1.
The final will be played in the Czech Republic on Nov. 14 and 15 because Moscow hosted the last meeting between the teams, when the Czechs won the 2011 final 3-2.
The Czechs have won the Fed Cup in three of the last four years, while Russia is without a title since 2008.
Earlier Sunday, Angelique Kerber leveled the score at 2-2 when she swept Russia's Pavlyuchenkova away in a 6-1, 6-0 win that lasted just 52 minutes.
"I knew I had to go out there and just get the point. Obviously, I was a bit nervous," Kerber said. "I played aggressively from start to finish and I got energy from my team."
Petkovic had beaten Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets to reduce Russia's lead over Germany to 2-1.
Czech Republic 3, France 1
OSTRAVA, Czech Republic -- Defending champion Czech Republic advanced to the final by defeating France after Petra Kvitova won the first reverse singles.
In a match of two big-hitting players, fourth-ranked Kvitova beat 29th-ranked Caroline Garcia 6-4, 6-4 for an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the semifinals.
After failing to serve out the match at 5-2, Kvitova converted her first match point in her following service game with a passing forehand shot on a fast indoor hard court at CEZ Arena.
"It was tough,'' said Kvitova who had 25 winners to Garcia's 18. "Our play is the same. Garcia played a very solid game.''
Garcia double-faulted twice in a row in the third game of the final set to drop her serve, and Kvitova marched on with another break in the fifth game.
Kvitova got the decisive break in the first set with a backhand passing shot for a 5-3 lead and served out the set.
The second reverse singles was not played. In the final doubles, France's pair of Kristina Mladenovic and Pauline Parmentier defeated Lucie Safarova and Barbora Strycova 0-6, 6-3, 10-8 to cut the overall Czech victory to 3-1.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.