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French pair pull off Davis Cup shock

France's Michael Llodra reacts during a Davis Cup doubles match against Bob and Mike Bryan of the US in Winston Salem, North Carolina on Saturday. PHOTO: AFP

The US lead their Davis Cup tie against France 2-1 in Winston-Salem after top-ranked doubles pair Mike and Bob Bryan missed out on a chance to become the most successful American doubles pairing ever on Saturday.

The brothers lost 6-7 7-5 6-3 6-4 to Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra after sharing a 14-1 win-loss Davis Cup record with John McEnroe and Peter Fleming. They must now wait before securing a 15th win.

Meanwhile Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez displayed nerves of steel to win a marathon doubles match and propel Spain into the Davis Cup semi-finals.

They battled for almost five hours before grinding out a 6-7 7-6 6-4 2-6 12-10 win over Philipp Kohlschreiber and Philipp Petzschner, giving Spain an unbeatable 3-0 lead over Germany in Bremen.

Argentina and Russia moved a step closer to meeting in the other semi-final after both nations won their doubles clashes to take a 2-1 lead into yesterday’s reverse singles.

David Nalbandian and Guillermo Canas made the most of the raucous Buenos Aires atmosphere to beat Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman and Robert Linstedt 7-5 6-4 6-4.

Visiting teams have often complained about the crowd’s overzealous behaviour in Argentina and on Saturday it was the Swedes who found the Estadio Parque Roca an inhospitable place.

Tempers frayed in the second set when Sweden captain Mats Wilander, amid jeering and whistling, complained to the umpire that Nalbandian was using time-wasting tactics to disrupt his team’s rhythm.

“I think they got a bit unnerved,” Nalbandian told reporters. “I wanted to make the public happy by winning, so we played every point as if it was the last.”

Canas said the atmosphere was comparable to a soccer match.

“It was somewhat like football because representing Argentina is something unique, something which you feel in your skin,” he said.

In Moscow, the Czechs found Russia to be perfect hosts and were given a roaring welcome when they stepped on court but the generosity in spirit stopped there.

World No.4 Nikolay Davydenko teamed up with Igor Andreev to outsmart Czech duo Pavel Vizner and Radek Stepanek 3-6 6-3 7-5 6-4.

Russia captain Shamil Tarpishchev had left Davydenko out of Friday’s singles after the player flew in late to Moscow following his triumph in Miami last weekend.

Meanwhile, Taiwan hung onto its Asia/Oceania Group One place with a come from behind win against Kazakhstan in Almaty yesterday. Needing to win both yesterday’s singles matches to avoid a relegation playoff Lu Yen-hsun defeated Yuriy Schukin 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 before Chen Ti clinched the tie by beating Alexey Kedryuk 7-6 (8), 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (4).

Elsewhere, Australia completed a 5-0 sweep of Thailand while Japan earned a dose of consolation by winning both reverse singles against India other Asian regional matches.

Australia and India progress to September playoffs to determine places for the elite World Group next year. They will both play first-round losers from this year’s World Group.

In other results yesterday, Uzbekistan beat Philippines 3-2 to set up a play off in September against Kazakhstan to determine which team gets relegated to Group Two.

In Asia/Oceania Group Two, China secured a 3-2 win over Indonesia, and will travel to New Zealand — which swept Kuwait 5-0 — in September to determine which nation goes up to Group One.
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