Summary Ayumi Morita beat Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-1 in the first reverse singles Sunday.
MOSCOW: It has given Japan a 2-1 lead over Russia in their Fed Cup first-round tie.
Ekaterina Makarova was scheduled to take on veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm in the second match.
On Saturday, Maria Kirilenko won the first point for Russia, defeating Date-Krumm in the opening singles, but Morita downed Ekaterina Makarova to even the best-of-five series at one-all.
Morita broke Vesnina in the fourth game and rallied from 40-love down in the seventh game for a 5-2 lead.
The Russian broke back for 5-4 but was broken on her next serve to lose the set. Vesnina broke Morita in the opening game of the second set but Morita dominated the rest of the games and served the match out at love to record her 14th straight Fed Cup victory.
The winner will play Serbia or Slovakia in the semifinals on April 20-21.
