Halep levels for Romania against Germany in Fed Cup play-off

Bucharest (AFP) - Simona Halep dug deep to seal her win over Andrea Petkovic to tie Romania's Fed Cup World Group play-off against Germany at 1-1 on Saturday.

Romania's Halep, ranked sixth in the world, needed just under three hours to secure her 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 win after Angelique Kerber had earlier put Germany ahead by beating Irina-Camelia Begu.

Halep twice wasted chances to win the match on her own serve, in the second set, which she lost on a tiebreak, then again in the third.

The match was often a scrappy affair, with Halep and Petkovic hitting over 100 unforced errors between them.

Halep will now face Australian Open champion Kerber in the first of Sunday's three rubbers at the Sala Polivalenta Arena.

Earlier, Kerber needed just under an hour and a half to convert her first match point to seal her 6-2, 6-3 win over Begu in Cluj-Napoca.

The German fired down the same number of winners (14) as Begu, but only half the unforced errors, 16 compared to the Romanian's 34, in front of a 7,500 crowd.

Germany are in the play-off after their 3-2 defeat at home to Switzerland in February and are bidding to stay in the top flight, as are Romania after their 3-2 loss to the Czech Republic.