Argentina and Serbia power through to Davis Cup semi-finals

Published on Sunday 11 July 2010 14:42

ARGENTINA and Serbia wrapped up quarter-final victories on the road in the Davis Cup to join France and the Czech Republic in the tournament's last four.

David Nalbandian beat Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 6-3 in the deciding match in Moscow to clinch Argentina a 3-2 win over Russia, which lost at home for the first time since 1996.

In Split, the second-ranked Novak Djokovic defeated Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 in front of a fiery Croatian crowd to give Serbia an unassailable 3-1 lead over their neighbours. Janko Tipsarevic then beat Antonio Veic 6-2, 7-6 (5) to rubber-stamp victory and seal Serbia's progression into their first Davis Cup semi-final, where they will host the Czech Republic in September. The other semi-final will see Argentina travel to France, who secured a 5-0 whitewash over defending champion Spain.

"This is probably the sweetest victory in my career because this is not just an individual win, but a victory for my country," Djokovic said.

Serbia had taken a 2-1 lead thanks to their doubles victory on Saturday and Djokovic had ethnic insults hurled at him in his match, which lasted 2 hours and 24 minutes before he finished Cilic off with a drop-shot winner.

"Serbia is writing history by reaching the semi-finals," Djokovic said. "Beating Croatia in this kind of heated atmosphere is really something big."

In the absence of the injured Juan Martin Del Potro - the US Open champion and Argentina's No 1 player - Nalbandian showed no signs of rustiness as he swept aside No 6 ranked Nikolay Davydenko in straight sets in Friday's opening match and did the same to Youzhny yesterday.

"I'm happy with my playing here but I'm not surprised at all, though I had no official match practice since April," Nalbandian said. "I know my level and I did my best to prepare for these matches."

Earlier, Davydenko had beaten Eduardo Schwank 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 to keep Russia's hopes alive but the hosts - missing big-serving players Igor Andreev and Dmitry Tursunov - came up short.

France held a 3-0 lead over Spain coming into the reverse singles, and they clinched the clean sweep thanks to Gilles Simon's 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) victory over Nicolas Almagro and Julien Benneteau's 7-6 (3), 6-4 defeat of Feliciano Lopez.

The French, who have won the Davis Cup nine times, dealt Spain their first 5-0 Davis Cup loss since 1957, when the team was thrashed by South Africa.

The Czechs were 3-0 up against Chile ahead of the reverse singles.