Argentina came from behind to beat Kazakhstan 3-2 in the best-of-five qualifying round as Sebastian Baez erased two match points and defeated Dmitry Popko 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 to advance to the Davis Cup final. advanced to the group stage. (6) Sunday.
Belgium, Czech Republic and France also won on Sunday, while Chile and Peru played in the evening.
Baez, 23, is currently ranked 25th, a career-high. He reached the third round at last month’s Australian Open, but lost to eventual champion Jannik Sinner. Popko, 27, is ranked 338th and has failed in 16 attempts to qualify for a Grand Slam tournament.
Popko had Kazakhstan in position to beat Argentina, the 2016 Davis Cup champion, with Kazakhstan just one point away from victory, leading 6-4 in the final tiebreak. But from there, Baez scored the final four points of the game.
Zizou Bergs defeated Duje Aidukovic 6-1, 7-5 on Sunday, giving Belgium a 3-1 win over Croatia and sealing their place in the next round. Bergs also won Saturday’s opening singles match against 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic.
The Czech Republic defeated Israel 4-0, and France defeated Taiwan by the same score.
Seven countries qualified for the series, which ended either Friday or Saturday: the United States, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Slovakia.
The 12 countries that advance this week will join reigning champions Italy, 2023 runners-up Australia, and wildcard runners-up, Great Britain and Spain, in the 16-team, four-city final group stage in September. Eight of those teams will advance to the quarterfinals in November in Malaga, Spain, where the winner will be decided.
One place below, in the World Group I playoffs, India defeated Pakistan 4-0, while two-time Grand Slam runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas helped beat Greece 4-0.
___
AP Tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis