Elena Dementieva [ Images ] and Melanie Oudin [ Images ] won their opening singles matches on Saturday to leave the Fed Cup semi-final between Russia [ Images ] and the United States tied at 1-1.

Oudin gave the hosts a perfect start when she recorded a 6-3, 6-3 win over Alla Kudryavtseva before Dementieva levelled the tie at the indoor hard court in Birmingham, which kept the players away from the storms battering Alabama.

The Olympic [ Images ] champion, ranked sixth in the world, defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 6-3 set the stage for a tense final day that will begin with her reverse singles rubber against Oudin.

"It always feels a little bit more pressure when you have to win your match," Dementieva told a news conference. "I expect a tough match against Melanie.

"I think this kind of court suits her game.

"Physically she looks pretty fit. ...Tomorrow I will be aggressive from the beginning, try not to go to long rallies because I know she feels very comfortable at the baseline."

Oudin, shouldering the burden of being America's top-ranked singles player after Serena and Venus Williams [ Images ] declared themselves unavailable, recovered from slow starts in both sets to beat Kudryavtseva, ranked almost 50 places below her and making her Fed Cup debut.

"I thought I played a really good, solid match all the way through ... a little rocky in the beginning of the first set, but I thought I closed it out really well," Oudin said.

"I'm gonna go into tomorrow just like any other match I'd play. I've played Elena twice now. We've played really good matches. I played well both times."

The best-of-five tie will be decided on Sunday with two reverse singles and a concluding doubles rubber.

The winners will advance to the November final against either holders Italy [ Images ] or Czech Republic. Italy lead 2-0 after the opening day in Rome.