Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s unexpected partnership in the doubles allowed France to gain an unbeatable 3-0 lead over Australia on Saturday, joining Switzerland and Germany in the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup.
France captain Arnaud Clement sprung a surprise when he picked Gasquet and Tsonga ahead of doubles specialist Julien Benneteau for the third rubber, but the gamble paid off as the French duo beat Lleyton Hewitt and Chris Guccione 5-7, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2, 7-5.
“It’s a fantastic feeling; they played unbelievable all weekend. I’m very proud,” Clement told reporters.
Photo: AFP
The result allowed France to wrap up the World Group first-round tie with a day to spare and they face Germany in the last eight in April after Tommy Haas and Philipp Kohlschreiber edged past Spain’s Fernando Verdasco and David Marrero 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (9/7), 6-3 in the doubles to go 3-0 up.
Spain paid the price for turning up in Frankfurt without world No. 1 Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer, and it was a similar story in Novi Sad, where a second-string Serbia were swept aside 3-0 by Switzerland.
A day after putting Switzerland 2-0 ahead, a cheering Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka leapt to their feet in celebration as Marco Chiudinelli and Michael Lammer beat Filip Krajinovic and Nenad Zimonjic 7-6 (7/3), 3-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-2.
The result put Switzerland into the last eight for the first time in 10 years.
“It’s a dream outcome for us to win the tie on Saturday evening, and we hope to have Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka with us for the rest of the Davis Cup season,” Switzerland team captain Severin Luthi told a press conference.
It completed a miserable weekend for Serbia, who were runners-up to the Czech Republic only two months ago, but now face a battle to preserve their World Group status in a playoff later this year after Novak Djokovic opted to skip the tie.
Serbia captain Bogdan Obradovic said he hoped world No. 2 Djokovic would return for September’s playoff.
“We need all our first-choice players back for that one, Djokovic most of all, but we also hope that Janko Tipsarevic will recover soon from his heel injury and that Viktor Troicki can rediscover his best form when he returns from suspension,” Obradovic said.
Japan sailed into the quarter-finals for the first time with a 4-1 victory against an injury-plagued Canada yesterday.
Japanese No. 1 Kei Nishikori was leading 6-2, 1-0 at Tokyo’s Ariake Coliseum when his opponent Frank Dancevic retired with an injury, surrendering the tie in their first meeting since 1938.
The US kept their fading title hopes alive when the world No. 1 doubles duo, Mike and Bob Bryan, beat Colin Fleming and Dominic Inglot 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to trim Britain’s overall lead to 2-1 on the red clay in San Diego.
However, Britain will be favorites to secure their first victory over the US in the competition since 1935 when Wimbledon champion Andy Murray took on Sam Querrey in the first reverse singles match yesterday.
World No. 175 James Ward pulled off a shock singles win over 49th-ranked Querrey on day one to give Britain an unexpected 2-0 lead after Murray had crushed Donald Young, the replacement for the injured John Isner, in straight sets.
Champions the Czech Republic need to win only one of yesterday’s reverse singles after Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek gave them a 2-1 lead with a 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/4) win over Robin Haase and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands.
Belgium, trailing 2-0 after the singles, made sure their tie against Kazakhstan would be alive on the final day after Olivier Rochus and Ruben Bemelmans secured a four-set win over Mikhail Kukushkin and Evgeny Korolev.
Italy nosed 2-1 ahead against Argentina after Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli hit back to defeat Eduardo Schwank and Horacio Zeballos 6-7 (6/8), 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/3), 6-4.
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