World No.2 Maria Sharapova sent Russia into the semi-finals of the Fed Cup yesterday as she defeated Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1, 7-5 to give her country an unassailable 3-0 lead.

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The doubles pairing of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Vitaliya Diatchenko later made it 4-0 as they beat Klaudia Jans-Ignacik and Alicja Rosolska 6-4, 6-4.

Following Sharapova’s victory over Urszula Radwanska in straight sets on Saturday, combined with a three set win for veteran Svetlana Kuznetsova over Urszula’s sister Agnieszka, Russia cruised into the last four.

French Open champion Sharapova is playing just her fourth Fed Cup tie since her 2008 debut but in order to make the Olympics next year all players have to make themselves available for the annual women’s team tournament.

“It is a very important win for me,” said Sharapova, who has often been criticised for not playing enough Fed Cup matches.

“Playing for the national team there is always added pressure.” 

In front of a partisan home crowd of some 15,000 in Krakow, Sharapova, who recently lost the Australian Open final to Serena Williams, improved her record against the world No.8 to 12 wins against just two defeats.

Radwanska saved two match points at 2-5 down in the second set to draw level at 5-5 but ran out of steam as five-time Grand Slam winner Sharapova closed out the match in one hour and 46 minutes.

Meanwhile, Andrea Petkovic endured another gruelling three-set marathon to seal Germany’s 3-1 win over Australia and put the hosts in the semi-finals. 

Petkovic was once again forced to dig deep to seal a 6-3, 3-6, 8-6 win over Jarmila Gajdosova with the third set taking nearly an hour.

It was the second time in 24 hours Petkovic was carried to victory by the vocal crowd in a gruelling tie after Saturday’s victory over Samantha Stosur came down to a 12-10 battle in the third-set after three hours, 13 minutes of tennis.

Having been 4-2 down in the crucial third, Petkovic showed her composure by converting her second match point to seal Germany’s win and keep them bidding for a second straight final appearance.

“I was a bit tired from yesterday, but I always just played it one point at a time," she said.  

Germany, the 2014 finalists, will face Russia in the semi-finals on April 18-19