COQUIMBO (Chile): The Czech Republic advanced to the semifinals of the Davis Cup by defeating Chile in doubles on Saturday to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in their best-of-five tie on clay.
Lukas Dlouhy and Jan Hajek won 7-6 (3), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 over Jorge Aguilar and Nicolas Massu.
The Czechs won both singles on Friday behind victories from Ivo Minar and Hajek.
Both teams are without their injured stars - Fernando Gonzalez for Chile and Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek for the Czechs.
"It's always a great feeling to win the tie at 3-0 after two days," Dlouhy said. "Now we can have a nice dinner and relax with the guys from the team."
Dlouhy said he was anticipating a tougher time. "I expected very big crowd support from the Chilean people," he added. "We expected they were going to play better than this."
The Czechs losing finalists last year against Spain, will face Serbia or Croatia in their second straight semifinals.
"We tried the best we could," Aguilar said. "They have a very good doubles team and we couldn't manage it. I'm a little sad that we did not reach the semifinals."
The Czechs won in almost all statistical categories and had 11 aces to only two for Chile.AP
