Aussies to take on Belgium, Colombia

AUSTRALIA AU has been drawn in a group with Belgium and Colombia Co in the new-look Davis Da Cup finals, which will be held hel this year in Madrid in November.

Belgium, which beat Australia in Brussels in the semi-finals two years ago, is ranked fourth in the Davis Cup rankings, with the South Americans, who beat Sweden to qualify for the world group stage, ranked 18th.

The draw was conducted in the Spanish capital on Thursday with 18 nations put into six groups for the new tournament, which counts Australian Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt among its harshest critics.

The six group winners plus the two second-placed teams with the best records based on percentage of sets won will qualify for the quarter-finals for the event, which gets under way from November 18-24. Group A: France, Serbia, Japan. Group B: Croatia, Spain, Russia. Group C: Argentina, Germany, Chile. Group D: Belgium, Australia, Colombia. Group E: Great Britain, Kazakhstan, Netherlands. Group F: United States, Italy, Canada. AUSTRALIAN John Millman has suffered an upset in the second round of the New York Open, losing to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in a tight threesetter yesterday.

The world No.102 Spaniard broke the fourth seed’s serve just once on his way to a gutsy 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 6-4 victory in two hours and 11 minutes.

It left Jordan Thompson as the only Australian left in the ATP 250 event after booking a quarter-final clash with bigserving American John Isner, who beat Bernard Tomic in straight sets. DEFENDING champion Dominic Thiem of Austria advanced to the Argentina Open quarter-finals yesterday, beating Germany’s Maximilian Marterer 6-4, 6-4.