MOSCOW — In a fitting end to a season dominated by Russian women, the country won its first Fed Cup title Sunday by edging defending champion France 3-2 when Anastasia Myskina and Vera Zvonareva beat Marion Bartoli and Emilie Loit 7-6 (5), 7-5 in the deciding doubles match.
Russia had lost its four previous Fed Cup finals but was led this time by French Open champion Myskina, who had a hand in each of the host's three points in the best-of-five final.
"It feels so good right now, and I feel so happy that our fans were delighted. I need nothing else," Myskina said, adding she was happier than when she won at Roland Garros in June.
The Fed Cup title capped the Russian women's domination of a year in which they won 15 singles titles, including three majors and the season-ending WTA Championships. In the final 2004 WTA Tour rankings, Russian women hold four of the top six spots and seven of the top 15.
Heading into the year, no Russian woman won a tennis major, and none had even reached a Grand Slam final since Olga Morozova in 1974.
But Myskina beat Elena Dementieva in the French Open final, Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon, and Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Dementieva for the U.S. Open title in another all-Russian final. Sharapova then won the tour championship in Los Angeles this month.
It's surprising that France managed to keep the Fed Cup final close, considering that the team's top player, second-ranked Amelie Mauresmo, pulled out, as did two-time major champion Mary Pierce.
"We could even have won the doubles. It's painful to lose when you come that close," French captain Guy Forget said. "I wish we would have lost very easily — it would have been less painful."
The two-day final was tied 1-1 heading into Sunday, and Myskina beat Nathalie Dechy 6-3, 6-4 to put Russia ahead 2-1. But Kuznetsova wasted a chance to clinch the title, losing to 16-year-old Tatiana Golovin 6-4, 6-1.
Myskina beat Golovin on Saturday.
In Sunday's doubles, the French pair wasted four set points while serving for the opener at 6-5, and French Open champion Myskina converted a break point after the game's fifth deuce with a backhand winner. Russia trailed in the tiebreaker, too, but came back from 3-0 down and won it with another backhand winner by Myskina.
In the second set, the Russians broke for a 6-5 lead, then served it out at love in front of a home crowd that included former president Boris Yeltsin, a big tennis fan.
DAVIS CUP: This week's U.S.-Spain Davis Cup final is expected to break the attendance record for a sanctioned tennis match.
The temporary clay court set up in Seville's Olympic Stadium has been configured to seat 26,600. The existing mark was set in 1954 in Sydney, Australia, when 25,578 watched the United States defeat Australia in the Davis Cup final.
Exhibition tennis matches have drawn more fans, including the 30,472 who were at the "Battle of the Sexes" between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs at the Houston Astrodome in 1973.
The best-of-five final begins Friday, with two singles matches. Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish lead the Americans, while past No. 1s and French Open champions Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya head the hosts.
Spain is appearing in its third Davis Cup final in five seasons. The United States, which has won the Davis Cup a record 31 times, last reached the final in 1997. Its last victory was in 1995.
While the Spaniards have won 11 straight Davis Cup matches at home, the Americans have some impressive head-to-head records. Roddick is 12-0 against all members of the Spanish team, although one of those matches was on clay. Fish is 4-1 against the Spanish players, but none of his wins came on clay.