TALLINN — Estonia moved into the Fed Cup Group II semi-finals with a crushing 4-1 win over Argentina.

The Fed Cup is to women’s tennis what the Davis Cup is to men’s tennis and is one of the few tennis tournaments in which the players are representing their country rather than themselves.

The tournament takes place over the course of the calendar year with teams who win their opening matches moving through to the semi-finals in April, before competing in the finals in November. Each match-up consists of two singles games on the Friday, before return singles on the Saturday and a doubles match on the Sunday.

Estonia's Kaia Kanepi was in top form at the Fed Cup this weekend, scoring two victories. Photo by Raimond Rooparg and used courtesy of Fed Cup.

Playing in Division II, Estonia made their intention clear of joining the top division next year, with absolute domination over their Argentinian rivals. Estonian no. 2 Maret Ani began procedures with an easy 6-1, 6-2 victory over Argentinian no. 1 Maria Irigoyen, before Kaia Kanepi put a forgettable week behind her in which her trainer and sponsors deserted her, to record a 6-1, 7-5 victory over opponent Paula Ormaechea.

Saturday saw similar results with Kanepi wasting no time in defeating Irigoyen 6-1, 6-1, a result that effectively handed Estonia the rubber. Playing with no pressure on her Ani opened up, again winning in impressive fashion, this time 6-2, 6-3 over Ormaechea.

On Sunday, Estonia decided to rest their top players and instead give two of their lesser-known players, Margit Ruutel and Anett Schutting an opportunity to participate in the doubles. Unfortunately the pairing could not complete the clean sweep but at least they finally gave the crowd a closer match, falling 5-, 4-6 to their higher ranked Argentinian opponents, Mailen Auroux and  Irigoyen.

With the semifinals over two months away, the draw has yet to be decided for the fixtures but their rubber will be against one of either Belgium, Australia or the Slovak Republic.