France march towards Davis Cup final after defeating Spain
While Spain remains in the throes of World Cup glory, celebrating the footballing win for the first time in their history, the weekend’s sporting action also brought to an end the country’s Davis Cup winning streak.
Defending champions Spain, minus French Open and Wimbledon champion Rafael Nadal (who was in Johannesburg for the World Cup final), were knocked out of the Davis Cup by France in a quarter-final whitewash.
France’s victory was sealed by the end of the doubles rubber when Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra prevailed over Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco, after Gael Monfils and Michael Llodra had helped their team to make a flying start to the tie with victories in the opening two singles rubbers.
The 5-0 defeat of Spain, who have been Davis Cup champions for the past two years, sees France move through to the semi-finals of the competition for the first time since 2004 (where they lost 1-4 to the Spaniards).
France will now take on Argentina as they seek to reach the final for the first time since 2002 (when they were defeated by Russia), with the Argentinians booking their place in the semis with a 3-2 defeat of Russia that was decided in the final rubber when David Nalbandian overcame a lack of match fitness to defeat world No. 14 Mikhail Youzhny in straight sets, backing up his victory over sixth ranked Nikolay Davyenko in the opening rubber of the tie in Moscow.
Awaiting the winner of the France versus Argentina semi in the final will be either Serbia, who are playing in their first Davis Cup semi-final or last year’s beaten finalists the Czech Republic.
The undermanned Czechs, who were without Wimbledon runner-up and world No. 8 Tomas Berdych as well as 29th ranked Radek Stepanek for their quarter-final, wrapped up their tie against Chile after the opening three rubbers before going on to win 4-1 and move one step closer to back-to-back Davis Cup finals.
Standing in their way will be a Novak Djokovic-led Serbia, who sent his side into the semis with a straight sets victory over Croatia’s Marin Cilic in their tie, and will be aiming to similarly buoy his team when they take on the Czechs in the penultimate round.
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