Serbia, Germany, Australia grab Davis Cup finals berths

Paris, Feb 2 (AFP) Former champions Serbia, Germany, Australia and Italy punched tickets to the Davis Cup finals on Saturday, while Japan rallied from a 2-1 deficit as Taro Daniel won the decisive rubber to overcome China. Serbia, playing without Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, watched their 2-0 overnight lead evaporate in Tashkent as Uzbekistan roared back to send their clash to a fifth rubber.

Denis Istomin partnered Sanjar Fayziev to a 2-6 6-1 6-3 win over Nikola Milojevic and Viktor Troicki in the doubles before he downed Dusan Lajovic 6-3 6-4 in the singles. But Filip Krajinovic picked up the decisive point by coming from behind to beat world number 280 Sanjar Fayziev 4-6 6-3 6-0 to nail down a place for Serbia at November's revamped finals in Madrid.

Germany, who won the last of three titles in 1993, eased to victory over Hungary as Jan-Lennard Struff and Tim Puetz strolled to a 6-2 6-3 doubles triumph to an unassailable 3-0 advantage. Third-ranked Alexander Zverev cruised to a 6-3 6-4 win over Gabor Borsos in the first reverse singles as the countries opted to play out the remaining dead rubbers in Frankfurt.

Australia romped to a 4-0 rout of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Adelaide, as John Peers and Jordan Thompson clinched the tie with a 7-5 6-1 defeat of Mirza Basic and Tomislav Brkic in the doubles. Teenager Alexei Popyrin, in his Davis Cup debut, followed up with a 6-1 7-6 (7/2) win over Nerman Fatic, while the fifth match was not played.

"After a long summer, it's not easy for a lot of these boys, but they did absolutely everything we asked of them, to come and do all the hard work on the practice court and I'm just really thrilled that they got the result they deserved," Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt told the Davis Cup website. Andreas Seppi guided Italy into the finals of the revamped competition after the 1976 champions dispatched India 3-1.

Seppi brushed aside India's number one Prajnesh Gunneswaran 6-1 6-4 in the first reverse singles tie on Kolkata's grass court after India avoided a whitewash by taking the doubles. Italy, who had led 2-0, overnight were forced to extend the encounter after Simone Bolelli and Matteo Berrettini lost to Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan 6-4, 3-6, 4-6.

- Canada face decider - =======================

Canada's Denis Shapovalov overcame Martin Klizan 7-6 (7/4) 6-4 to level their tie with Slovakia at 2-2 in Bratislava and set up a winner-takes-all showdown between Felix Auger-Aliassime and Norbert Gombos. Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassime had earlier dropped the doubles to Klizan and Filip Polasek, losing 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Unheralded Swiss duo Henri Laaksonen and Jerome Kym kept their nation's hopes alive with a 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7/1) win over Evgeny Donskoy and Andrey Rublev to trim Russia's lead to 2-1 in Biel. Switzerland, the 2014 champions, are without both Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka who have combined for a total of 23 Grand Slam singles titles.

Japan fought back after dropping the doubles to sweep the reverse singles in Guangzhou as Daniel clinched the final point with a tense 6-3 6-7 (4/7) 6-3 victory over Li Zhe. Yoshihito Nishioka thrashed Wu Yibing 6-2 6-0 to level the tie after Gong Mao-Xin and Zhang Ze edged Ben McLachlan and Yasutaka Uchiyama 5-7 7-5 6-4.

Kazakhstan are also through as Mikhail Kukushkin completed a 3-1 victory over Portugal by swatting Joao Sousa aside 6-4 6-1. Under the new format adopted by the International Tennis Federation, the Davis Cup will be decided at a season-ending 18-team event between the week of November 18-24.

Rubbers are now played in a best-of-three-set format, replacing the long-used best-of-five, with the reverse singles matches played on Saturday after the doubles, shortening the ties by one day to two. The 12 winners in qualifying this weekend will join automatic qualifiers Croatia, France, United States, Spain, Argentina and Britain in November's finals in Madrid. AFP

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