The US and Argentina won their doubles on Saturday and are on the brink of joining Australia in the Davis Cup semifinals.
Russia's bid was stalled in Pau when Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra won a five-setter for France.
By 2-1 scorelines, the US led Chile in California, Argentina moved ahead of defending champion Croatia in Zagreb, and Russia remained on top of France.
Australia secured an unassailable 3-0 lead over Belarus when Wayne Arthurs and Paul Hanley outlasted Max Mirnyi and Vladimir Voltchkov 3-6, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 on hard courts in Melbourne.
Australia, which won its 28th and last championship in 2003, will meet the Croatia-Argentina winner in September's semis, their fifth in eight years.
In Zagreb, David Nalbandian and Jose Acasuso defeated Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic and Marin Cilic 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 after both teams made late replacements.
Acasuso was in for Agustin Calleri, who played singles on Friday, while Cilic, the world's top-ranked junior, came in again for Mario Ancic, who was still hampered by a back injury from midweek practice. Cilic took Ancic's spot in Friday's singles, and the 17-year-old won only four games against third-ranked Nalbandian.
Nalbandian will have a chance to clinch Argentina's fourth semi-finals berth in five years against Ljubicic in today's first reverse singles.
But Ljubicic, Croatia's player-captain, hopes the tie will be decided in the fifth rubber, by Ancic off his sickbed.
France kept alive its home tie in Pau when Clement and Llodra squandered a two-sets-to-nil lead to first-time Russian pairing Dmitry Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny, and eventually prevailed 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 5-7, 6-2 in 3 hours, 54 minutes.
Italy's Francesca Schiavone advanced to her second final of the year when Svetlana Kuznetsova retired from the Bausch & Lomb Championships with a groin injury on Saturday.
Schiavone was leading their semifinal 7-6 (2), 3-2 when Kuznetsova called it quits.
In today's final, third-seeded Schiavone will face top-seeded Nadia Petrova after the Russian downed Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2.
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