Great Britain lose Davis Cup quarter-final with France 4-1
Jeremy Chardy beat Kyle Edmund 6-4, 6-4 in reverse singles to give France a comprehensive 4-1 win against Britain in their Davis Cup quarterfinal yesterday.
Both players had seven aces on indoor clay at the Kindarea in Rouen. Chardy dropped his serve once and broke Edmund three times.
Earlier, Dan Evans salvaged some pride by thrashing Julien Benneteau 6-1, 6-2 in the fourth rubber to make it 3-1.
With France safely through to the semifinals after winning Saturday’s doubles for an unassailable 3-0 lead, France captain Yannick Noah rested 17th-ranked Lucas Pouille and replaced him with Benneteau.
Benneteau, who played in Saturday’s doubles triumph, struggled to compete against Evans in a one-sided match lasting just 43 minutes. The 35-year-old Benneteau, ranked 113, dropped his serve five times and failed to force a breakpoint chance against the 44th-ranked Evans.
France hosts Serbia in September. They have not met since the 2010 final, which Serbia won 3-2 at home.
Australia clinch quarterfinal win over US
Australia advanced to the Davis Cup semifinals after Nick Kyrgios beat late substitute Sam Querrey of the United States 7-6 (4), 6-3, 64 in the first reverse singles match yesterday, clinching the quarterfinal 3-1 with a match to spare.
On a hard court at Pat Rafter Arena, Kyrgios and his singles partner Jordan Thompson gave Australia a 2-0 lead on Friday before the Americans staved off elimination on Saturday when Jack Sock, who lost to Thompson on Friday, and partner Steve Johnson beat Sam Groth and John Peers 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3.
Querrey was supposed to be Johnson’s doubles partner, but American captain Jim Courier, who said it would take “monstrous effort” for the Americans to win the tie, pulled a swap, putting Sock into doubles and allowing Querrey to be fresh for Kyrgios.
That worked for a while yesterday during an evenly-played first set, but Kyrgios gradually overpowered the American with his strong serves and backhand. Querrey broke Kyrgios’ serve in the fourth game of the third set, and held to lead 4-1.
But Kyrgios stepped it up a notch and won the last five games of the match, jumping up and hugging Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt and his teammates when the match ended.
The often-volatile Kyrgios was mostly at his best behavior and won both his singles matches in straight sets, although the final two sets against John Isner on Friday were in close tiebreakers, 7-5 each time, after Kyrgios prevailed in the opening set 7-5.
Isner beat substitute Groth 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the meaningless second reverse singles yesterday, in a match reduced to best-of-three, to make the final score line 3-2.
Australia will play either Belgium or Italy in September’s semifinals, with Belgium leading that quarterfinal 2-1 ahead of Sunday’s reverse singles.