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France beats Sweden to reach the quarterfinals

Andy Roddick pf the US hits a backhand against Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic during the first round of the Davis Cup in Carson, California on Sunday. Ljubicic won the match. PHOTO: AP

Nine-time champion France eliminated Sweden from the Davis Cup on Sunday, advancing to the quarterfinals when Paul-Henri Mathieu defeated former Australian Open winner Thomas Johansson 6-1, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-4.

The 3-2 victory was the fifth for France in their 12 meetings with Sweden, and the first since the French won the the 1996 final 3-2 in their last clash.

Russia also advanced to the quartefinals, beating Chile 4-1, while the Netherlands finished off a 3-2 victory over Switzerland and Romania completed a 3-2 win over Belarus. Australia and Argentina both capped off 5-0 sweeps, the Australians vanquishing Austria and Argentina beating the Czech Republic.

Slovakia, which eliminated defending champion Spain on Saturday, finished off a 4-1 victory. Fernando Verdasco earned Spain's lone consolation win.

Croatia took an insurmountable 3-1 lead over the United States after Ivan Ljubicic outlasted Andy Roddick in a taut five-set marathon. The remaining reverse singles match became essentially an exhibition with doubles specialist Bob Bryan, who subbed for Andre Agassi, defeating Roko Karanusic, a replacement for Mario Ancic, to make the final result 3-2.

With their victories, France will meet Russia in a rematch of the 2002 final and Slovakia will face the Dutch in the quarterfinals July 15-17. In the other quarterfinals, it will be Australia vs. Argentina, and Romania will go up against Croatia.

In Strasbourg, France, Mathieu wasted three match points before finally beating Thomas Johansson.

Sweden drew even at 2-2 when Joachim Johansson rallied from a set down to beat French No. 1 Sebastien Grosjean 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 and send the tie to the final match. Thomas Johansson rallied after losing the first two sets, leading 4-2 in the fourth before Mathieu surged back.

"When he came back to 2-1 it was hard to stay focused mentally," Mathieu said.

"He started to relax and hit harder as he had nothing to lose. I have no idea where I got the energy from to win."

Dutchman Sjeng Schalken defeated Swiss teenager Stanislas Wawrinka in five sets to give the Netherlands a 3-1 lead over Switzerland. Schalken took four hours to overcome 13 aces and Wawrinka 1-6, 6-2, 6-4, 2-6, 9-7.

The hosts were playing without top-ranked Roger Federer for the first time in seven years.

"I hope Roger heard the call from his friends, who have the potential to go really far with the world No. 1 by their side," Swiss captain Marc Rosset said.

In the meaningless fifth match, Peter Wessels took the first set against Marco Chiudinelli 6-4 but then withdrew with a back injury.

In Carson, California, Ljubicic played iron man for his country, outlasting Roddick 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (11), 6-7 (7), 6-2 in a match that lasted almost 4 hours.

The 25-year-old Ljubicic began the round with a straight-set win over Agassi, then teamed with Mario Ancic to hand Bryan and his twin brother, Mike, their first Davis Cup loss in six matches.

"I think all around the world, this is going to be big news because to beat Andre, Bryans and Roddick in three days, I think it's a great effort," Ljubicic said. "I was thinking if I could just win one singles, just to keep up the momentum and just keep the confidence up. But I did it all the way, so it is just amazing."

The Americans, who lost to Spain in the finals last year, have won the Cup 31 times, but haven't taken it since 1995. The drought is their longest in 68 years.

Both Roddick and Ljubicic played extremely well in what was an exciting match.
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