Timea Bacsinszky in press conference.

Timea Bacsinszky ground out a straight sets victory over Alize Cornet to put Switzerland 1-0 up in their World Group first round tie in Geneva

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Timea Bacsinszky was forced to work hard for her straight sets victory against France's Alize Cornet as Switzerland took an early lead in the nations' Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group first round clash.

Cornet put up a fierce resistance but ultimately succumbed 75 64 to a rejuvenated Bacsinszky, who looked keen to banish memories of poor performances in the competition last year.

The Swiss edged a marathon first set, overcoming - of all things - a wasp sting at 3-3 as she finally broke through to take the lead after one hour and 18 minutes.

She seized the initiative early in the second set and held match points when Cornet served at 5-3. The Frenchwoman held firm, however, and forced Bacsinszky to serve it out - which she finally managed on her fourth match point a fearsome cross-court backhand completing the job.