Zizou Bergs grabbed a point on Sunday as Belgium beat Croatia to book their place in the Davis Cup final, while France also advanced with a straight-sets win over Taiwan.
After finding out Saturday’s singles opener, Sander Gil and Joran Vliegens achieved a surprising doubles victory over Ivan Dodig and Mate Pavic 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) , led the Belgian national team.
Bergs got the job done for the visiting team in Varazdin, defeating Duje Aydukovic 6-1, 7-5 and confirming his success on the opening day against former world No. 3 Marin Cilic.
Croatia will miss out on a place in the finals for the first time since the Davis Cup format changed in 2019.
This year’s group stage will be held in September, with the final tournament to be held in Malaga in November.
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France, who had already led 2-0 in singles on Saturday, came back from a set down with Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin to defeat Xu Yuxiu and Jason John 3-6, 6-2, 7- They defeated them 6(7) and secured their breakthrough. /1).
“I was probably a little timid at first,” Roger-Vasselin said.
“We stayed calm. We knew our level of play was going to change. We had to stay nervous.”
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Quentin Harris rounded out France’s victory with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) win over Jason Tseng.
The Czech Republic also qualified with a 3-0 win over Israel on Sunday.
The Israeli doubles pair of Daniel Cukierman and Edan Leshem had to withdraw from their match against Tomas Machak and Adam Pavlasek.
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Cukierman came off the bench in the third game with a hamstring injury, and although he tried to continue, he had to give up after a few games.
“From the beginning, we played really well,” Machak said. “I wish Dani a speedy recovery. This is not a good ending.”
Slovakia, the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Brazil, the United States and Canada also qualified over the weekend, but the remaining four ties are yet to be decided.
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Serbia, without Novak Djokovic, lost 4-0 to Slovakia.
In addition to defending champions Italy and last year’s runners-up Australia, Great Britain and Spain have also automatically qualified for the finals.
JC/DMC