Taiwan on Sunday wrapped up a 3-1 victory over Mexico in their Davis Cup World Group I playoff match, while two-time champions Croatia reached the Davis Cup Finals where they were joined by unheralded South Korea and Finland.
Taiwan’s Hsu Yu-hsiou and Tseng Chun-hsin defeated Mexico’s Isaac Arturo Arevalo and Cesar Ramirez 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 in the doubles match to set up an unassailable 3-0 lead in the tie at Club Deportivo La Asuncion in Metepec, Mexico.
Mexico’s Luciano Alcocer then defeated Taiwan’s Huang Tsung-hao 6-3, 6-3 in the singles, while the final match was not played.
Photo: AFP
In Rijeka, hosts Croatia, the Davis Cup champions in 2005 and 2018, were 2-0 up on Austria in their qualifier overnight.
Lucas Miedler and Alexander Erler then upset doubles specialists Nikola Mektic and Ivan Dodig 6-3, 7-6 (13/11) to keep Austria in the tie, but world No. 23 Borna Coric won his second singles match, seeing off former US Open champion Dominic Thiem 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 as Croatia joined the 16-nation group stage of the finals in September.
“I was pretty nervous, but I came out on court and I was playing great tennis today,” Coric said.
In arguably the performance of the qualifying round, South Korea overturned a 2-0 deficit to beat Belgium 3-2 in Seoul.
South Korea’s Hong Seong-chan, ranked 237 in the world, clinched the deciding point with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) win over Zizou Bergs, ranked 122 places higher.
“The players made history as a team. It’s a dream to advance to the finals for two consecutive years,” South Korea captain Park Seung-kyu said.
Nam Ji-sung and Song Ming-kyu started the South Korea fightback with a 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/5) doubles win against Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen.
Kwon Soon-woo then stunned David Goffin 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 on the back of 11 aces to level the tie.
“We had opportunities in every match, but time after time we didn’t succeed,” Belgium captain Johan van Herck said.
Finland made the finals stage for the first time with a 3-1 win over 2016 champions Argentina in Espoo.
Emil Ruusuvuori won all three matches he played.
On Sunday, he teamed up with Harri Heliovaara for a 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 6-4 win over Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni.
The 23-year-old then fittingly secured the winning point by seeing off Facundo Bagnis 7-5, 6-1.
“It’s an incredible feeling to play this kind of tennis in front of the home crowd,” world No. 43 Ruusuvuori said.
Three-time winners the Czech Republic beat Portugal with impressive 21-year-old Jiri Lehecka sealing victory with his second singles success of the weekend, a 6-4, 6-1 triumph over veteran Joao Sousa in Maia.
The Netherlands defeated Slovakia in Groningen, while Chile downed Kazakhstan 3-1 at home to also make the last 16.
Also making it through were 10-time winners France, Switzerland, Serbia, Britain, Sweden and the US.
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