Defending Davis Cup champions Serbia shrugged off the absence of Wimbledon winner Novak Djokovic to wrap up a 4-1 win over Sweden and book a semi-final date against Argentina on Sunday. Janko Tipsarevic earned the crucial point, beating Michael Ryderstedt 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 in Halmstad to secure Serbia a home September semi-final meeting with Argentina, themselves easy 5-0 winners against Kazakhstan.
"It feels really good. I know that Serbia was a huge favourite with Robin (Soderling) not here and with Novak," said Tipsarevic, who had played two singles rubbers instead of world number one Djokovic. Ryderstedt, who was playing his first ever Davis Cup with a world ranking of 297, had put up a good fight but lost to Viktor Troicki in the first rubber on Friday.
Tipsarevic then gave Serbia a 2-0 lead, getting past Ervin Eleskovic when the home player retired injured. The hosts did see their hopes rekindled on Saturday when Simon Aspelin and Robert Lindstedt won the doubles rubber in straight sets, defeating Djokovic and Nenad Zimonjic, who ranks sixth in the world for doubles.
But on Sunday, Tipsarevic, again deputising for Djokovic who had complained of a knee problem on Friday, had the upper hand, breaking Ryderstedt six times en route to victory. In Stuttgart, France completed a 4-1 win over Germany. Philipp Petzschner saw off Michael Llodra 6-3, 6-4 for his team's only point of the weekend with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga then defeating Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/5) to wrap up the quarter-final. France will play Spain in the semi-finals after the Spaniards routed the US 3-1. Spain's David Ferrer beat Mardy Fish 7-5, 7-6 (7/3), 5-7, 7-6 (7/5) to give Spain an insurmountable lead in the quarter-final in Austin, Texas.
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