Varvara Lepchenko keeps the U.S. in it with two singles wins, but the Americans, without the Williams sisters or the injured Sloane Stephens, get scrubbed in the deciding doubles 6-2, 6-2.

Serbia will front two former No. 1s in Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic, while Russia counters with former world No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova appearing in her fifth tie.

Best headline of the week from Canada’s National Post: “Anderson drops a piano on Murray at Rogers Cup”…

Mattek-Sands was injured, but clay is her worst surface. The Williams sisters never play Fed Cup, and they only would have played this tie to maintain their Olympics eligibility. Venus Williams reportedly retained her eligibility for the Olympics by hopping on the plane to Stuttgart and sitting in the stands for the U.S. How sad is that?

Fernandez took a chance on Vandeweghe after a reportedly bad practice week from Melanie Oudin. Oudin has had a down year since her quarterfinal breakthrough at the US Open last year. Fernandez benched Oudin on Saturday, then on Sunday Oudin showed her veteran composure by not only upsetting Top 10er Francesca Schiavone but blowing out the Italian, allowing her only four games.

U.S. Fed Cup Captain Mary Joe Fernandez will have to choose between the overwhelmed Coco Vanderweghe and Melanie Oudin, who was benched from the first day for a poor practice week, in the first match on Sunday.

Vandeweghe is much like Oudin when she first appeared on tour — not in the best of shape, with a bit of a “gut” visible, and a poor mover. That changed for Oudin when she worked with her trainers to erase the extra body fat and gain speed. Hopefully that is ahead for Vandeweghe, and not just a reliance on a thumping serve and forehand.

On the opening day Saturday Melanie Oudin defeated Kudryavtseva, then the Russian Dementieva evening the tie at 1-1 with a straight-set win over Mattek-Sands. On Sunday in the opener Oudin failed to match her heroics at the US Open where she defeated Dementieva, falling to the Russian despite winning the second set 6-0.

In the semifinals the U.S. will host Russia in April after the Russians defeated Serbia 3-2. In the deciding doubles match Svetlana Kuznetsova and Alisa Kleybanova defeated Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic 6-1, 6-4 to advance.

Notes: Croats Cilic, Ljubicic, Karlovic among seeds; Cilic could face Crazi Dani 2nd rd.; (4) Troicki opens against Schuettler, and (2) Ljubicic vs. Clement; Cilic beat Mario “Baby Goran” Ancic in last year’s all-Croat final; Ljubicic won in 2006.