France eases into Davis final
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France reached the Davis Cup final after Mickael Llodra and Arnaud Clement beat Eduardo Schwank and Horacio Zeballos 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 in the doubles yesterday to take an unbeatable 3-0 lead over Argentina.
The French, who got off to a perfect start on Friday with wins by Llodra and Gael Monfils, will face either Serbia or the Czech Republic in the December 3-5 final. That semifinal was tied 1-1 after Friday's singles.
On Friday, Llodra put the French ahead against Argentina in Lyon with a 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over Juan Monaco. There was more for the home fans to cheer in the second singles match when Monfils followed up with 27 aces in a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over David Nalbandian.
No. 2-ranked Novak Djokovic was a late withdrawal from Serbia's team for the first day's play, saying he was still tired after his run to the US Open final, and his replacement Viktor Troicki lost the opener 6-4, 2-6, 4-6, 4-6 to Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in Belgrade.
But Janko Tipsarevic hauled Serbia back by beating Tomas Berdych 7-5, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (5).
Monfils, who is undefeated in the Davis Cup this year, won six consecutive games in the last set as he moved France closer to shot at a 10th Davis Cup title and its first since 2001.
"This is a fabulous experience," Monfils said. "I started to play with the France team when I was a 12 or 13-year-old boy and I dreamt about the Davis Cup. Now, doing this in a semifinal... Today I played one of my best three matches this year."
Friday's results were a vindication for France captain Guy Forget, who snubbed former French No. 1 Richard Gasquet to give doubles specialist Llodra his chance.
Nalbandian struggled with Monfils' attacking game. "Gael served better than I did," he said.
Tipsarevic's win over Berdych, on the Wimbledon runner-up's 25th birthday, had the 15,000 spectators in the Belgrade Arena on their feet and preserved Serbia's hopes of reaching its first Davis Cup final.
"We are still a very good team even if Djokovic needs to take a day off," Tipsarevic said later.
Tipsarevic's good returns took the edge from one of Berdych's best weapons, his big serve. The Serb had Berdych in trouble in many of the Czech's service games and broke twice to go two sets up.
A netcord ball gave the No. 7-ranked Berdych a 3-1 lead in the third set. Tipsarevic fired the ball into the roof of the arena and never regained his rhythm, losing the set.
Another netcord made it 3-1 for the Czech in the fourth after Tipsarevic had saved two break points. But this time Tipsarevic stayed focused and broke right back and then went on to win the tiebreaker.
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