Spain 2 Switzerland 1

Defending Davis Cup champion Spain gained a crucial 2-1 lead in its first-round tie with Switzerland after Marcel Granollers and Tommy Robredo edged Stanislas Wawrinka and Yves Allegro 7-6(8), 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 Saturday in Logrono. 

In a tense encounter on clay in the Plaza de Toros de la Ribera, Spain clinched victory by breaking its Swiss opponents in the final game of the match after two hours and 55 minutes. Wawrinka had given the visiting team a 1-0 lead with victory over Nicolas Almagro on Friday, before David Ferrer coolly levelled the tie.

Spain is undefeated in 18 consecutive Davis Cup ties on home soil, and has not lost in 20 consecutive ties played on clay. Spain lifted the Davis Cup trophy for the fourth time last year, defeating Czech Republic 5-0 in Barcelona.

Ferrer will have the chance to clinch the tie for the hosts when he faces Wawrinka in the first of the reverse singles on Sunday.

Russia 2 India 1

Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes kept India’s hopes alive against Russia in Moscow as they defeated Teimuraz Gabashvili and Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in 96 minutes in Saturday’s doubles rubber. India is competing in the World Group for the first time since 1998.

“The match is always tough and at this level you can never really take anything that easy, but I must say that was one of our smoothest Davis Cup wins at this level,” said Paes.

Victory for the former long-time duo, who have won three Grand Slam doubles titles together, recorded the first win of the weekend for the visitors, who were defeated in both singles rubbers on Friday. In Sunday’s reverse singles, Mikhail Youzhny is scheduled to face Somdev Devvarman and Igor Kunitsyn will meet Rohan Bopanna.  

“Even though Russia is in the driving seat, we’ve got to go out there and put in a good performance and take it to Russia and try and come away with a couple of wins under our belt," added Paes.

Belgium 0 Czech Republic 3

Last year’s Davis Cup by BNP Paribas runner-up, Czech Republic, is through to the World Group quarter-finals after Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek gave the visitors an unassailable 3-0 lead with victory in the doubles rubber in Bree on Saturday.

The Czech pair, who both won their singles matches on Friday, defeated Belgians Steve Darcis and Olivier Rochus 7-6(0), 6-0, 6-3 in one hour and 56 minutes. Berdych and Stepanek led Czech Republic to its first final since 1980 last year, finishing runner-up to Spain in Barcelona.

“I still can’t believe how great the guys played this weekend. With a team like this I am confident against any nation”, commented Czech captain Jaroslav Navratil.

Berdych and Stepanek have now won six of their seven Davis Cup doubles rubbers together and improved to 23-9 and 16-9 overall Davis Cup records, respectively.

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Croatia 3 Ecuador 0

Croatian duo Marin Cilic and Ivo Karlovic capped their respective singles wins on Friday by clinching the tie for the host nation with a straight-sets 7-6(3), 6-3, 7-5 doubles win over Ecuadorian brothers Giovanni Lapentti and Nicolas Lapentti Saturday in Varazdin.

Cilic and Karlovic, who came into the line-up to replace teammates Ivan Dodig and Antonio Veic, struck 14 aces and dropped serve just once in the two-hour, 40-minute match. They were representing Croatia in the Davis Cup for the first time together.

“It wasn’t one-way traffic in the doubles, it was as tough as we expected it to be and we are overjoyed to have secured a berth in the last eight,” Cilic said in a courtside interview.

Croatia team captain Goran Prpic said: “We got into our stride once we started returning serve to the best of our abilities and we now have a good chance of emulating last season’s success, when we reached the semi-finals of the competition.”

In 2005, Croatia became the 12th nation to win the Davis Cup, defeating Slovak Republic in the final. Last year, Croatia defeated the United States to reach the semi-finals, before falling to Czech Republic.