Japan's No 1 Moyuka Uchijima beat Anca Todoni to dash Romania's hopes of reaching the Billie Jean King Cup Finals after Ena Shibahara had got Japan off to a flying start in their Group A qualifying clash on Saturday.
Shibahara beat Miriam Bulgaru 7-5 6-2 and Uchijima overcame Todoni 3-6 7-6(3) 6-2 in two and a half hours in Tokyo to set up a winner-takes-all showdown with Canada on Sunday.
Todoni earned the first break to move ahead 4-2 in the opening set and maintained her advantage to close it out.
The Romanian also led for much of the second set before Uchijima saved two match points and broke back to force a tiebreak.
Uchijima dominated that and broke Todoni twice in the third set to seal victory.
"I don’t know how I won the match. I am just happy that I was able to pull it off. Of course, the fans helped me a lot," Uchijima said.
Shibahara had put Japan ahead to the delight of a vocal home crowd, pouncing at 6-5 to claim the first set and breaking Bulgaru twice in the second.
"I was nervous in the beginning. I think overall I played well," Shibahara said. "It (the crowd) helps me so much, I love it when they’re loud. I really kept pressing and being aggressive."
Spain downed Czech Republic in Group B to qualify for the Finals, as Cristina Bucsa beat Marie Bouzkova 7-5 6-1 and Jessica Bouzas Maneiro defeated Linda Noskva 6-4 6-2 to take a decisive 2-0 lead in the tie in Ostrava.
Australia completed a 3-0 sweep of Colombia in Brisbane, but it was not enough to reach the Finals in Shenzhen as Kazakhstan had already secured top spot in Group D.
The winners of Group C will be decided in Sunday's clash between the United States and Slovakia in Bratislava after Denmark, who lost to Slovakia on Friday, went down to the US as well.
Hailey Baptiste outplayed Rebecca Munk Mortensen 6-1 6-4 and Bernarda Pera beat Johanne Christine Svendsen 6-3 6-1 to give the US an insurmountable 2-0 lead in the tie.