Former world's No. 1 Victoria Azarenka teamed up with Olga Govortsova to beat Japan's pair of Ayumi Morita and Shuko Aoyama 6-3, 6-4 in the doubles match, giving Belarus a 3-2 triumph in the Fed Cup Group II playoffs on Sunday at Tokyo's Ariake Colosseum.
With the result, Belarus qualified for the World Group II next season while Japan got demoted to the Zone Group I.
"Obviously Victoria helped us a lot (during the two-day competition)," Belarus captain Tatiana Poutchek said. "The matches are very tight as I expected. For the decisive doubles, Victoria was the (London) Olympic champion in mixed doubles and Olga is also ranked highly in doubles and knows how to play."