France beat Serbia to enter final

LILLE: France won a place in the Davis Cup final when Jo-wilfried Tsonga beat Dusan Lajovic 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(5), 6-2 to give the hosts an unassailable 3-1 lead over Serbia on Sunday.

Playing on clay at Lille’s Pierre Mauroy stadium, Les Bleus did not have it easy in their semi-final against a team deprived of former world number one Novak Djokovic as they set up a final against Australia or Belgium.

France were the heavy favourites against Serbia and they delivered despite unexpectedly losing the first point when Lucas Pouille lost to Lajovic on Friday.

French number one Tsonga, however, played solid tennis against Laslo Djere and Lajovic to give Les Bleus two points while grand slam champions Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-hugues Herbert won their doubles against Filip Krajinovic and Nenad Zimonjic.

France played their last final in 2014, losing in Lille to Roger Federer’s Switzerland.

In the same arena, Tsonga was broken in the first game and he wasted a break point in the sixth game as Lajovic went 4-2 up in the potentially decisive reverse singles match.

Tsonga kept misfiring and he dropped serve again in the seventh game with Lajovic bagging the first set easily.

GOFFIN DOWNS KYRGIOS BRUSSELS: David Goffin defeated Nick Kyrgios 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 as Belgium levelled their Davis Cup semi-final against Australia at 2-2 on Sunday to take the tie into a deciding rubber.

With a place in the November 24-26 final at stake, Australia skipper Lleyton Hewitt gambled by bringing in Jordan Thompson to replace John Millman.