 Bob Bryan teamed up with John Isner to revive the US's hopes |
The United States kept their hopes of a Davis Cup victory against Serbia alive with a crucial four-set doubles win in the World Group tie in Belgrade. Bob Bryan and John Isner beat Nenad Zimonjic and Janko Tipsarevic 7-6 5-7 7-6 6-3 to cut Serbia's lead to 2-1. The US recovered from a poor first day, with Isner losing to Victor Troicki and Novak Djokovic beating Sam Querrey. France edged into the last eight with a win over Germany, while depleted Spain opened a 2-1 lead over Switzerland. Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau edged the French into the quarter-finals with a four-set win over Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber and Christopher Kas in Toulon. The win gave the nine-time winners an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the best-of-five tie and set up a last eight clash against champions Spain or Switzerland in July. Spain - missing Rafael Nadal, Fernando Verdasco and Juan Carlos Ferrero - established a 2-1 lead over the Swiss in Logrono with Tommy Robredo and Marcel Granollers overcoming Stanislas Wawrinka and Yves Allegro in four sets.  | 606: DEBATE |
The tie now hinges on Sunday's singles matches, with David Ferrer to play Wawrinka and Nicolas Almagro facing Marco Chiudinelli. Last year's finalists Czech Republic and 2005 winners Croatia also qualified for the quarters on Saturday. Czechs Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek followed up Friday's singles wins with a straight-sets doubles victory over Belgium's Steve Darcis and Olivier Rochus in Bree. Croatian pair Marin Cilic and Ivo Karlovic, who also won their singles on Friday, saw off Ecuadorian brothers Nicolas and Giovanni Lapentti in Varazdin. Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes kept alive India'shopes by cruising to a 6-3 6-2 6-2 win over Russians Teimuraz Gabashvili and Igor Kunitsyn in Moscow. India trail 2-1 going into Sunday's reverse singles. In Stockholm, Argentina's David Nalbandian partnered Horacio Zeballos to a straight sets victory against Sweden's Robin Soderling and Robert Lindstedt, opening a 2-1 lead for the 2008 finalists. In the final match between Chile and Israel, which was delayed by a day due to the massive Chilean earthquake last week, Nicolas Massu gave the hosts a 1-0 lead with a 4-6 6-2 6-2 6-4 victory over Dudi Sela.
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