France Clinches Semi-final Berth; Sweden Pegs Serbia Back

© Getty ImagesLindstedt and Aspelin brought Sweden back into contention against Serbia on Saturday.

GERMANY 0 FRANCE 3 
Stuttgart, GER – Clay (Outdoors)

France reached the Davis Cup semi-finals for the second year in a row on Saturday as Michael Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga gave the visitors an unassailable 3-0 lead over Germany in Stuttgart. In the doubles rubber, the French pairing defeated Christopher Kas and Philipp Petzschner 7-6(4), 6-4, 6-4.

Victory marked Wimbledon semi-finalist Tsonga’s eighth Davis Cup win, his second in doubles, while the 31-year-old Llodra improved to a 19-10 record in Davis Cup play.

On Friday, Richard Gasquet had come from two sets down to defeat Florian Mayer in the opening rubber before Gael Monfils gave the French team a commanding lead by dismissing Philipp Kohlschreiber in straight sets.

"I knew the tie was going to be close and difficult, even though we’ve won by Saturday night," said France team captain, Guy Forget. "All the matches were really tight, and I’m really glad the French players took it so seriously and played with a lot of heart."

Nine-time Davis Cup champion France finished runner-up to Serbia in the 2010 Davis Cup final, and last triumphed in the ITF men’s team competition in 2001 with victory over Australia.

SWEDEN 1 SERBIA 2
Halmstad, SWE - Hard (Indoors)

Sweden kept its hopes alive against Serbia on Saturday in Halmstad with a victory in the doubles rubber, having fallen behind 0-2 after the first day’s play. Simon Aspelin and Robert Lindstedt brought the host nation back into contention with a 6-4, 7-6(5), 7-5 victory over World No. 1 and Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic and his partner Nenad Zimonjic.

Defending champion Serbia had gained the perfect start on Friday with victory in the singles rubbers for Viktor Troicki and Janko Tipsarevic. Djokovic was brought into the doubles in place of Tipsarevic, but the 24 year old, who has lost just once in 49 matches this season, could not steer his team to victory.

Lindstedt said, "You can’t compare singles to doubles, that’s just the way it is. This is not the environment that he [Djokovic] is used to, if I played him in singles I would struggle to get games, but we are very happy to have played this well today and beat such a strong team as they are."

A disappointed Dokovic said, "I expected myself to adjust a little bit better in the rhythm of the return. One of my main weapons wasn’t working well as I was missing a lot of returns, but that’s because of their serves as well, which were great. And they were playing really well at the net. We are coming into the third day 2-1 up which is the most important thing and tomorrow we will try to end this tie."

The outcome will now be determined on Sunday, when Tipsarevic is due to face Michael Ryderstedt and Troicki is set to meet Ervin Eleskovic in the reverse singles rubbers.