U.S. is tied 1-1 with France in Fed Cup semifinals

Kristina Mladenovic rallied to beat CoCo Vandeweghe 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 and draw France level with defending champion United States in their Fed Cup semifinal on Saturday in Aix-en-Provence.

The 20th-ranked Mladenovic dropped serve five times but broke No. 16 Vandeweghe’s serve six times.

Earlier, U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens struggled to put away Pauline Parmentier 7-6 (3), 7-5 at the 6,700-capacity Arena Pays d’Aix on indoor clay.

Stephens saved five set points serving at 5-4 down in the first set, and rallied from 4-3 and a break down in the second set against Parmentier.

Both players made more than 50 unforced errors each in the scrappy 2 1/2-hour match, conceding 25 break-point chances between them.

Stephens converted four of her 11 break chances, while Parmentier took only three of her 14 chances.

The reverse singles are on Sunday, followed by a doubles featuring Mladenovic and Amandine Hesse against Madison Keys and Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

The Americans hold an 11-2 winning record against the French, who won their most recent meeting in 2014.

Both teams are missing their highest-ranked player: No. 8 Venus Williams and No. 7 Caroline Garcia.

Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova gave the Czech Republic a 2-0 lead over Germany in the other semifinal with dominant displays in their opening singles matches in Stuttgart, Germany.

Kvitova defeated Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-2, before Pliskova followed up with a 7-5, 6-3 win over two-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber in the World Group.

UPDATES:

12:30 p.m.: This article has been updated with the result of the second singles match from the U.S.-France semifinal.

This article was originally published at 8:40 a.m.