St. Louis, MO (SportsNetwork.com) - Madison Keys beat Alize Cornet in three sets on Saturday to earn the United States a 1-1 tie with France after two matches of their best-of-five Fed Cup World Group playoff.
Keys, 19, battled back after dropping the first set to knock off Cornet 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, in a match that went nearly three hours.
Earlier, 21-year-old Sloane Stephens lost the first match to 20-year-old Caroline Garcia 6-3, 6-2 to give France the first match at Chaifetz Arena on the campus of Saint Louis University.
All four players will be back in action Sunday in reverse singles matches, with Keys playing Garcia and Stephens going against Cornet, who won last week's event in Katowice, Poland.
A doubles match between Americans Christina McHale and Lauren Davis, and the French pairing of Virginie Razzano and Claire Feuerstein will be used as a tiebreaker if necessary.
The winning country will rejoin the Fed Cup World Group next year.
The 17-time Fed Cup champion Americans are looking to extended their all-time record against France to 12-1. France's only win in the series came in the 2003 final, with current captain and former world No. 1 star Amelie Mauresmo leading the way.
The U.S. team is captained by Mary Joe Fernandez.
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