The Czech Republic have advanced to the Fed Cup semi-finals after two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova beat Switzerland's Belinda Bencic.
Kvitova's 6-2 6-4 victory gave the Czechs an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the first-round match and secured a 10th-straight appearance in the last four.
They will face Germany, who edged Belarus 3-2, in April.
Kvitova secured the win against Bencic on her first match point.
"It was better today than yesterday, when I played in the Fed Cup again after such a long time away and needed time to get used to it," she said.
It was a memorable return to the Fed Cup for Kvitova after she was injured in a knife attack at her home in December 2016.
Kvitova, who won the St. Petersburg Open in Russia earlier this month, was a member of the Czech team that won five of the last seven Fed Cups.
Karolina Pliskova, the Czech No. 1, missed the first-round match against the Swiss because of illness.
Venus Williams helped the United States advance before assisting in sister Serena's return to competitive tennis.
The elder Williams sister defeated Richel Hogenkamp 7-5, 6-1 to give the US a decisive 3-0 lead in their best-of-five tie with the Netherlands.
The defending champions will play France, who defeated Belgium 3-2, in April's semi-finals.
"Honestly, I feel like we were all a team out here, us playing and everyone in the stands," Williams said in her post-match interview in front of the sellout crowd of more than 5,000 in Asheville.
"It was all of us together, and it felt awesome."
Williams will play doubles later on Sunday alongside Serena, who will be returning to competitive tennis after spending a year away from the game to become a mother.
Sunday's scheduled singles match between CoCo Vandeweghe and Arantxa Rus was scrapped because the outcome of this best-of-five event already has been decided
Meanwhile in Minsk, Tatjana Maria won two points in her first Fed Cup tie in seven years to lead Germany, who were without their three leading players, past 2017 finalists Belarus.
Maria earned her first singles win since 2007 when she won the first reverse singles against Vera Lapko 6-4 5-7 6-0.
The 19-year-old Lapko made her Fed Cup debut in place of team No. 1 Aliaksandra Sasnovich, who lost her singles on Saturday.
Aryna Sabalenka then tied the match 2-2 by beating German newcomer Antonia Lottner 6-3 5-7 6-2.
But straight after that two-hour match, Sabalenka returned for the deciding doubles with Lidziya Marozava.
The German pairing of Maria and Anna-Lena Groenefeld prevailed 6-7 (4-7) 7-5 6-4.
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