Novak Djokovic booked Serbia’s place in the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup yesterday as he eased past Benoit Paire to send France crashing out.
Djokovic beat Paire 6-3, 6-3 in Madrid after Filip Krajinovic won a close encounter 7-5, 7-6 (7/5) against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to give Serbia a 2-0 advantage with only the doubles rubber to play.
It means France cannot advance as one of the best two runners-up by virtue of their record on sets, even if they win the doubles.
France’s early exit is a major surprise given they were the top seeds in the competition, which they have won on 10 previous occasions and were only denied an 11th success by Croatia in last year’s final.
Serbia will now meet Russia today and were joined in the last eight by Germany, who secured the one rubber they needed against Chile as Philipp Kohlschreiber defeated Nicolas Jarry 6-4, 6-3 in the singles.
Germany await the winner of Group E, where Britain were due to play a dramatic doubles clash against Kazakhstan, with the victors going through and the losers going out.
Andy Murray could be called upon after being rested from the singles following his close match against the Netherlands’ Tallon Griekspoor on Wednesday.
Britain made a strong start after Kyle Edmund played brilliantly to see off Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-3 but Dan Evans was beaten 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 by Alexander Bublik to leave the tie in the balance.
Spain are already safely through after Rafael Nadal led them to a 3-0 victory over defending champions Croatia on Wednesday.
Australia pull out
of doubles
Australia retired one game into their doubles dead rubber against Belgium at the Davis Cup Finals, placing the revamped tournament under further scrutiny a day after Canada forfeited a doubles rubber against the United States.
With a scheduling logjam pushing matches past midnight for a second successive day, Australia won both their singles against Belgium to seal a quarter-final clash against Canada but had little motivation to try for a sweep in the early hours of yesterday.
Australia’s John Peers and Jordan Thompson did take the court for the Group D doubles rubber but walked off after claiming the opening game.
Belgium, knocked out of the tournament, were given a 6-0 6-0 win by organisers.
Tennis Australia tweeted that Peers had “wrist injury concerns” but captain Lleyton Hewitt later said the doubles specialist had a sore elbow.
“It was an easy decision for me because I’m not risking him before we have a quarter-final match tomorrow,” Hewitt told reporters.
“He’ll be getting treatment tonight and icing it. Hopefully it pulls up well for tomorrow night.”
Canada forfeited their doubles rubber in Tuesday’s Group F clash against the United States, also after winning both singles rubbers.
“Three of the Canadian players were passed unfit to the play the doubles,” organisers the ITF said at the time.
With the two best runners-up in the six groups joining the group winners in the quarter-finals, the United States stood to benefit from being effectively gifted the two 6-0 sets.
The best second-placed nations are decided first on matches won, then individual rubbers, then sets and then games.
Novak Djokovic celebrates after winning the singles match against Benoit Paire at the Davis Cup Finals in Madrid yesterday. (AFP)
