OSTRAVA, Czech Republic -- The Czech Republic took a commanding 2-0 lead over defending champion Italy in their Fed Cup semifinal Saturday after Lucie Safarova and Petra Kvitova won the opening singles matches in straight sets. Safarova gave the Czechs a 1-0 lead by upsetting Sara Errani 6-4, 6-1, and Kvitova used her powerful serve and forehand to follow up with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Camila Giorgi to put the hosts one win away from the final against Australia or Germany. The reverse singles and doubles are planned for Sunday. The sixth-ranked Kvitova dominated the hard-hitting Giorgi and didnt face a break point until in the final game when she saved two and needed four match points to seal the victory. "I played a solid game and my serve helped me a great deal," said Kvitova, who hit 11 aces. Kvitova broke the 54th-ranked Giorgi in the opening game and went on to serve out the first set with an ace. The match had to be interrupted for 20 minutes in the first set with Kvitova leading 4-3 due to a problem with the lights in the CEZ Arena. Giorgi double-faulted twice in the opening game of the second set and produced another double-fault to go 5-2 down. Earlier, the 26th-ranked Safarova converted her first match point with a return winner to complete the victory over her 11th-ranked opponent. "Its an important victory for our team," said Safarova, who improved to 2-1 against Errani. The Czech played aggressively from the start on the fast indoor hard-court at the CEZ Arena, hitting 33 winners to Erranis four. The opening set saw both players losing their serve twice in the first five games. Errani then double-faulted in the ninth game to lose her serve for the third time and Safarova clinched the set with a service winner. "I was nervous at the beginning and made some mistakes," Safarova said. "But then I managed to focus on my game. I went aggressively for the points." 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Basketball fans around the globe will be watching as Kobe Bryant makes his season debut - 240 days after tearing his left Achilles - against Toronto, a team he has used as his own personal punching bag.Im unsure if I have ever seen the week before the Super Bowl generate more interest than perhaps the actual preparation week will itself. The whole deflation of New England Patriots footballs is like a murder mystery without the violence or significance. On one side, this is a ridiculous issue. The amount of air taken out of the football by whatever the means to be determined has, in my mind, no effect on winning and losing or in the execution of precision play. Perhaps, it is a comfort zone thing for a quarterback, a feel of confidence which begins with a grip and ends with a completion...but no one can say it determines outcome. On the other side, in talking to quarterbacks, just about every one has said that the deflation helps and enhances a better feel for the ball. Though not one of them ever said it would assist them in on-field statistical performance, but just a better sensation or more stable sensation in handling the ball. And on this other side is a true argument as to ethical standing of fair play. Everybody has to play by the same rules, same standards, same limitations and extremes. I dont think we will ever find the truth in all of us this. The Patriots will deny any knowledge, not just in the present, but in the complete future . As time goes on, what would be gratifying to be conclusive, I would assess, will remain speculative - a mystery. The only way it will not is if someone, almost anyone, says, I did it. And if that person were to come forward, he would be taking a huge employment risk and, logic says, character assassination . Everything diffuses over time from the most tragic to the most comical to the most entertaining . Time takes the intensity out of it all. Did the powerful trio of Bob Kraft, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady know about or conspire to create this minimal advantagge? Nobody can definitively say no, but the mental picture looks absurd.dddddddddddd I cant see Robert Kraft in the equipment room in the dead of night adjusting football air pressure with a pin . I cant see Belichick walking into the equipment room hiding in a corner, taking out a pin, testing a football 12 times and, with precision, eliminating one pound of pressure. And the most unusual visual image would be Tom Brady himself, before his sixth Super Bowl appearance, a quarterback of the highest confidence and ability, hiding and peering around a corner, making sure no one sees, as he doctors a football. How unprofessionally immature would that look? Did the ball boy do it, the equipment manager or anybody with 24-hour access to the interior of the Patriots locker room? That, to me, is more plausible, but why? An order from above? Initiation on their own part - a casual conversation overheard and an action taken to assist? I doubt that. Why risk the possible consequences and probable paper trail? That really leaves only weather and the effects of weather. But then why only 12 of 13 and why only on one sideline? The only way we as football fans will ever know is if someone is fearful and that fear translates into accountability. But the onslaught of condemnation would be a price that creates the silence alternative much more attractive. So then, who knows and it is just about time to ask who cares? Yet, this will not go away until an answer, hopefully a believable answer, will be found . Silence can be the most aggravating response to a given question and I anticipate all Patriots players to be silent. But the Seattle Seahawks, they will have fun with it and so will all in attendance in the fans, media and entertainers. And maybe that is the best response if an answer is never found . ' ' '