Tokyo: The Czech Republic wasted little time wrapping up their Davis Cup quarter-final tie against Japan after the defending champions eased to a straight sets victory in the doubles rubber on Saturday to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in Tokyo.
After battling to singles wins on Friday, Radek Stepanek and Lukas Rosol paired up for a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Tatsuma Ito and Yasutaka Uchiyama at the Ariake Coliseum to set up a last-four encounter against either Germany or France.
In a match that lasted two hours and 20 minutes, the Czech pairing won all three sets with a break of serve in the 10th game against the error-prone Japanese to remain on course for a third straight Davis Cup title and fourth overall.
Rosol was brought in as a substitute for Jiri Vesely by Czech captain Jaroslav Navratil on Saturday morning and the move proved inspired, with the world number 40 exhibiting a strong serve and playing especially well from the baseline.
On Friday, former world number eight Stepanek, now 47th, came from a set down to beat Ito 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 6-1, 7-5 before Rosol survived a mid-match meltdown to overcome 21-year-old Taro Daniel 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 6-2 in the second rubber.
Both sides came into the contest without their top players.
World number five Tomas Berdych is out for the Czechs following two tough tournaments in the United States, while Kei Nishikori is sidelined with a groin problem suffered in a victory over Roger Federer at last week’s Sony Open in Miami.
Earlier, two of the favorites struggled on the first day of the Davis Cup quarter-finals, with Germany closing in on a big upset against France and Switzerland only managing to split the opening singles matches against Kazakhstan.
In the match of the day, 119th-ranked Peter Gojowczyk beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a five-set marathon to give injury-hit Germany a 2-0 lead over host France. Gojowczyk won 5-7, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 7-6 (8), 8-6 after Tobias Kamke had defeated Julien Benneteau 7-6 (8), 6-3, 6-2.
“It is incredible, that was unexpected. To feel the spirit and atmosphere of the place is great,” Germany captain Carsten Arriens said. “He was playing against Tsonga so you can’t expect him to win, but he stayed in the match.”
Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka also surprisingly lost his opening singles match for host Switzerland against 64th-ranked Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan, 7-6 (5), 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (5). That left it up to Roger Federer to even the best-of-five series at 1-1 by easily dispatching Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
“I was very satisfied with my performance,” Federer said. “It doesn’t change in terms of being 1-0 up or down — I have to make sure I played my match.”
Italy were up 1-0 over Britain after Fabio Fognini beat James Ward in Naples and the second match between Andreas Seppi and Andy Murray was suspended because of darkness. Fognini was made to struggle against a player ranked 148 places below him before winning 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 in more than three hours.
Murray was leading 6-4, 5-5 when play was stopped on a rain-interrupted day.
