CAGLIARI, Italy: Roberta Vinci gave Italy a precious first point in the Fed Cup final on Saturday with a hard-fought 5-7, 7-5, 8-6 victory over Russian Alexandra Panova.

Vinci had the partisan crowd on their feet after racing to a 4-0 lead on the slow red clay of the Cagliari tennis club.

However, the 30-year-old Italian, ranked 13th in the world, was stunned by an impressive fightback which allowed her younger opponent to take the first set 7-5.

Panova, ranked 136th in the world and only the 12th best player in her country, soaked up most of the early pressure and surprisingly gave Vinci notice that she would be in for a long afternoon.

Vinci was trailing 5-3 in the second set and, appearing to lack confidence, was helped enormously when Panova committed a series of unforced errors.

Vinci served to reduce the arrears to 5-4 and dug deep in the next game, forcing more errors from the Russian to break serve and draw level before gaining momentum and finally taking the second set 7-5.

The Italian later admitted: “When I played aggressively, it was much better... at the end of the important was to get the win.”

To her credit, Panova, who hasn’t won a match on the main tour since February, refused to lie down and had the Italian on the ropes.

But in the deciding set Vinci launched another spirited fightback, drawing level at 5-5 and took the next game to love as the Russian committed more unforced errors.

Sensing the danger, Panova dug deep on serve to overturn a love to 30 deficit in the 12th game to pull level 6-6.

However Vinci took a 7-6 lead when she lobbed Panova after she had made a naive dash to the net before sealing the match when Panova’s nerves got the better of her in the final game.

Italian Sara Errani next faces Irina Khromacheva while Errani is scheduled to meet Panova in the first of two reverse singles rubbers on Sunday.

The final concludes Sunday with a doubles rubber scheduled between Italians Flavia Pennetta and Karin Knapp and Alisa Kleybanova and Margarita Gasparyan of Russia.