Thanks to some wild doubles wins, Spain and Germany clinched the last two berths into the Davis Cup semifinals Friday in Bologna, Italy.
Spain took down fourth-seeded Czech Republic 2-1, while No. 2 seed Germany rallied to defeat Argentina by the same score in the other quarterfinal on Thursday.
Now the Spanish and German teams are set to face off in the semifinals of the single-elimination bracket of eight. Host nation and defending champion Italy is in the other semifinal and will play Belgium.
The finals of the international competition are Sunday.
On Thursday, Jakub Mensik got the Czech Republic on the board first by beating Pablo Carreno Busta 7-5, 6-4. Jaume Munar kept the Spaniards alive by sweeping Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 6-4.
For the first time in the final eight, it came down to the doubles match. Spain’s tandem of Pedro Martinez and Marcel Granollers eked out a 7-6 (8), 7-6 (8) win over Mensik and Tomas Machac.
Martinez and Granollers trailed at some point in each of the tiebreakers, including 5-2 in the first set. They saved three set points in that tiebreaker and another two in the second to win a tightly contested battle.
The other match saw Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina edge Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 7-6 (3), 7-6 (7), only for World No. 3 Alexander Zverev to draw Germany even with a 6-4, 7-6 (3) victory over Francisco Cerundolo.
In doubles, the German duo of Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz fended off Horacio Zeballos and Andres Molteni 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10). The Argentines saved four German match points and the Germans had to save three — at 7-6, 8-7 and 10-9 — before finally putting the match away.
–Field Level Media
