Pennetta gave the Italians the perfect start against Russia

Russia's hopes of a third straight Fed Cup title hang in the balance after they ended day one of their semi-final against Italy trailing 2-0.

Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone claimed singles wins over Anna Chakvetadze and Svetlana Kuznetsova in Castellaneta Marina in southern Italy.

In the other semi-final, the Czech Republic and the USA are tied at 1-1.

Petra Kvitova gave the Czechs the lead in Brno before US rookie Alexa Glatch levelled the match.

Glatch, the world number 114, beat the experienced Iveta Benesova 6-1 6-2 after Kvitova had defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-3 7-6 (7/2).

In Sunday's ties, Benesova is due to face Mattek-Sands and Kvitova will face Glatch, while the doubles will feature Benesova and Kveta Peschke against world number one doubles player

The Czechs are in their first semi-final since 1997 while the US have not made the final since 2003.

In the other semi-final, Pennetta and Schiavone gave the 2006 champions the perfect platform.

Pennetta defeated Anna Chakvetadze, a late replacement for Vera Zvonareva, who pulled out on Friday because of an ankle injury, 6-4 6-0.

Schiavone then shocked world number nine Svetlana Kuznetsova 1-6 6-2 6-3 in a match that lasted two hours 21 minutes.

Despite dropping the first set, Schiavone raced to a 4-1 lead in the second set on her way to levelling the rubber.

Although she was broken in the first game of the final set, she hit back straight away and went on to seal the win.

"I didn't play my best tennis. I came here from playing on hard courts so it was very confusing," said Kuznetsova.

"The conditions were slow in the first set, got faster in the second and slowed down again in the third. It's very disappointing to be 2-0 down but we are not out of it yet."

Italy can reach their third final in four years on Sunday when Pennetta faces Kuznetsova and Schiavone meets Chakvetadze.

Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci are due to play doubles against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Nadia Petrova.

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