France reaches DCup semis; Serbia, Spain stalled

LONDON (AP) -France beat Germany again to reach the Davis Cup semifinals while Sweden stalled Serbia's progress with an unexpected doubles victory on Saturday. Meanwhile, Argentina wrapped up a 5-0 sweep of Kazakhstan in Buenos Aires, and France was awaiting to learn the winner in Austin, Texas, where the United States stayed alive against Spain. In Stuttgart, Michael Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France defeated Christopher Kas and Philipp Petzschner 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-4, dropping serve only once, to earn an unbeatable 3-0 lead in their quarterfinal. Story continues below ↓ advertisement | your ad here "I knew the tie was going to be close and difficult, even though we've won by Saturday night," France captain Guy Forget said. "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." The result continued France's domination of Germany in Davis Cup. France has not lost to its neighbor since 1938, and not lost a live rubber since 1953. Where France, last year's runner-up, plays in September, depends. If Spain beats the U.S., it will host France. If the U.S. pulls off a comeback win, its first from 2-0 down since 1934 against Australia in London, France has already booked Roland Garros for the semi. In Halmstad, the reappearance of new No. 1 Novak Djokovic was not enough for defending champion Serbia to secure a semifinals berth. Djokovic decided to skip Friday's singles to rest his sore left knee, and Serbia still won both matches against host Sweden. The chance to clinch the quarterfinal prompted Djokovic to replace Janko Tipsarevic and join Nenad Zimonjic, a three-time Grand Slam doubles winner. But the pair lost to Robert Lindstedt and the retiring Simon Aspelin 6-4, 7-6 (5), 7-5. Djokovic netted an easy overhead to give up the only break in the first set, and Serbia blew a 5-3 lead in the second-set tiebreak, losing four straight points. The Swedes broke Djokovic to win the third set and match. "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," Djokovic said. Serbia still led 2-1, however, and will be expected to win the quarterfinal in the reserve singles on Sunday. Tipsarevic will play Michael Ryderstedt in the first match, and the second was still undecided after an injury to Sweden debutant Ervin Eleskovic. Argentina expects to travel to Serbia in September. "The opponent is going to be Serbia, 100 percent," Argentina captain Tito Vazquez predicted. "The doubles was the only chance for Sweden to win a rubber. Definitely Serbia is going to be the winner, so we're thinking about playing Serbia away. It's a difficult match, a very solid team. We'll try to do our best, give them a good fight." Argentina beat Kazakhstan 3-0 on Friday, and added the dead singles rubbers on Saturday. Juan Ignacio Chela beat Evgeny Korolev 2-6, 6-2, 6-0, and Juan Monaco downed Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 6-1. Argentina has reached the semifinals in seven of the last 10 years. Brothers Bob and Mike Bryan, the world's No. 1 doubles team, kept the Americans alive by beating Marcel Granollers and Fernando Verdasco 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Granollers and Verdasco had never played doubles together. Granollers was a substitute for Feliciano Lopez, who won a four-hour singles over Mardy Fish on Friday. Sunday's reverse singles will pit David Ferrer against Mardy Fish and Lopez against Andy Roddick.