London, March 6: France, Spain, the United States and Argentina eased into the Davis Cup Finals while Belgium scraped past host Finland 3-2 in the qualifiers.
Australia came from behind to beat Hungary 3-2 in Sydney, as did Italy against Slovakia in Bratislava. France ticked all of its boxes in defeating Ecuador 4-0 in Pau, its first home tie since the 2018 final.
Arthur Rinderknech earned his first singles win, Benjamin Bonzi won on debut, and the doubles team of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut remained unbeaten in six years. Spain took out Romania 3-1 in Marbella.
After Roberto Bautista Agut and 19th-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, on debut, won the opening singles on Friday, Romania pegged them back on Saturday in the doubles when Marius Copil and Horia Tecau won.
But Bautista Agut clinched the tie in beating Copil 6-2, 6-3.
The U.S. doubles team of Rajeev Ram and Jack Sock built on the singles wins of Sebastian Korda and Taylor Fritz on Friday by clinching the tie against Colombia 3-0 in Reno, Nevada, after topping Nicolas Barrientos and Juan-Sebastian Cabal 6-3, 6-4.
Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman and Horacio Zeballos beat the Czech Republic 4-0 in Buenos Aires.
Unheralded Zizou Bergs came through for Belgium against Finland in Espoo.
Finland led 2-1 after the doubles, but David Goffin beat Emil Ruusuvuori for his second point and Bergs, who lost to Ruusuvuori on Friday, won the decisive point for Belgium by dispatching Otto Virtanen 6-4, 6-0.
Australia was also 2-1 down after the doubles against Hungary, but won the reverse singles in straight sets when Alex de Minaur beat Marton Fucsovics and Thanasi Kokkinakis defeated Zsombor Piros in the clincher.
Alexander Zverev, the only top-five player in action this weekend, sealed Germany’s 3-1 win over Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro upset Jan-Lennard Struff on Friday but the No. 3-ranked Zverev put him away 6-1, 7-5 in the first reverse singles.
Italy overcame Slovakia 3-2. Slovakia led 2-1 after the doubles, but Jannik Sinner made it 2-2 and Lorenzo Musetti won his first Davis Cup singles beating Norbert Gombos 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-4.
Norway lost in Oslo to Kazakhstan 3-1 when No. 8-ranked Casper Ruud fell to No. 32 Alexander Bublik 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. The defeat ended Ruud’s streak of 10 consecutive Davis Cup singles wins since 2017. (AP)
