James Blake saved two match points to beat Paul-Henri Mathieu in a five-set thriller and position the defending champions on the verge of reaching the Davis Cup semi-finals on Friday.
The US led injury-depleted France 2-0 and lined up world No. 1 pair Bob and Mike Bryan for the doubles.
In the other quarter-finals, Russia, the 2006 champions and last year’s runners-up, were 1-1 with the Czech Republic at their Moscow fortress, Rafael Nadal led Spain to a 2-0 lead over Germany and Argentina and Sweden were 1-1 in Buenos Aires.
France started against the US without two of their top three players when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga withdrew with a knee injury, and No. 1 Richard Gasquet was rested because of a hand blister.
No surprise then when Andy Roddick took care of Michael Llodra 6-4, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5). Left-handed Llodra was broken only once, but he could not overcome Roddick’s overwhelming serve in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
In a seesawing second singles, Blake faced two match points when Mathieu served at 5-4 in the fifth set. But Blake fended both off and broke serve, held his own serve for 6-5 and then broke the Frenchman again to finish the 3 hour, 48 minute match in an unexpected rush 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.
Marat Safin justified the faith of Russia captain Shamil Tarpishchev by overcoming a two-set deficit to surprise Tomas Berdych 6-7 (5), 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Safin has been struggling with a 1-5 record on the ATP tour this season and the star from the 2002 and 2006 championships was a late addition to the team, for which he had not played since last year’s quarter-finals.
Safin saved 16 of 17 break points against Berdych as he won from two sets down for the first time in 30 ties.
But Radek Stepanek recovered one point for the Czechs by sweeping Igor Andreev 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, going some way to making up for a horror Cup debut when he lost to Mikhail Youzhny and Nikolay Davydenko in 2003.
That Russian pair was set to meet Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner in the doubles.
Despite a fast indoor hard-court picked by Germany to foil Spain, the visitors led 2-0 in Bremen.
Rafael Nadal cruised past Nicolas Kiefer 7-6 (5), 6-0, 6-3 and David Ferrer beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
Kohlschreiber needed on-court treatment for back and leg muscles and was down to play in the doubles with Philipp Petzschner to keep the tie alive for Germany.
Spain were putting out Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez to try and earn their first semi-finals berth since 2004, when they won their last title.
Robin Soderling stunned Jose Acasuso 6-0, 6-4, 6-1 for Sweden to tie Argentina after David Nalbandian beat Thomas Johansson 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
Acasuso was preferred to the more experienced Guillermo Canas and was 5-0 in Cup play, including two singles wins against Sweden on the same courts in his 2006 debut.
Jonas Bjorkman and Robert Lindsted will team for Sweden in doubles against Nalbandian and Canas.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB