France Beats Germany To Reach Davis Cup Semifinals

Stuttgart, Germany, Jul 9: France secured a spot in the Davis Cup semifinals when Michael Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga swept Saturday's doubles in straight sets to give their team an unassailable 3-0 lead over Germany.

Llodra and Tsonga beat Christopher Kas and Philipp Petzschner 7-6 (4), 6-4, 6-4. The French pair dropped serve only once, in the first set but they rallied to win the tiebreaker.

France will play either Spain or the United States. The Spaniards lead 2-0 against the Americans.

France lost to Serbia in last year's final, while Germany was looking to reach its first semifinal since 2007. France improved to 7-2 against Germany and has not lost to its neighbor since 1938.

Llodra and Tsonga have only played Davis Cup doubles together twice. The first time was when they paired up in 2009 to beat Thiemo de Bakker and Igor Sijsling in France's World Group playoff series against the Netherlands.

The Germans broke serve on Llodra's double-fault for a 5-4 lead in the opening set, but Kas could not serve it out and France won the tiebreaker.

Kas dropped serve once in each of the next two sets, enough for France to cruise home on a warm, sunny day and in front of several hundred blue-clad supporters at the Weissenhof outdoor clay-court stadium.

Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils had won their opening singles on Friday to give France a 2-0 lead. AP