Australia and Germany cruised into the Davis Cup Finals with second day doubles wins as Taro Daniel saw Japan survive an upset against China.
In the Davis Cup Qualifiers, Australia and Germany secured their place in November’s finals with wins over Bosnia and Hungary respectively.
Despite both nations not being in favour of the new changes to the 118 year tournament they both qualified for November’s showdown in Madrid.
While Japan saw off tough competition from China as Taro Daniel edged the visitors in the Davis Cup Finals as they won 3-2 in Guangzhou.
In Adelaide it was John Peers and Jordan Thompson who were the heroes of the day as they defeated Bosnian duo Mirza Basic and Tomislav Brkic 7-5 6-1 to seal their place in the Davis Cup Finals.
Despite despising the changes Hewitt remained proud of his team’s effort, “The boys all got around that, and for me that was the pleasing part, because no matter what the format is we go out and do our best and give 100 per cent and leave it all out there. There’ll be times when we don’t win, but I’ll always be proud of these guys and the effort they give.”
Joining them in the Davis Cup Finals are Germany after Jan-Lennard Struff and Tim Puetz cruised to a 6-2 6-3 win to keep their undefeated record in Davis Cup.
Even though they reached the finals, they will be without world number three Alexander Zverev who confirmed his absence in November yesterday, “He is a friend of mine. I like him and we talked. But no one in this World can change my mind to play in Madrid end of November,I often played in the old system and one day I would like to win for Germany in the old version.”
Japan Edge Past China As Italy Advance
In Guangzhou Japan recovered from a 2-1 deficit to overcome China and reach Madrid’s finals. The Chinese had the slight advantage after Mao-Xin Gong and Ze Zhang defeated Ben McLachlan and Yasutaka Uchiyama 5-7 7-5 6-4 to give the hosts the advantage.
However a comfortable win for Yoshihito Nishioka over Yibing Wu started the comeback, which was eventually sealed by Taro Daniel. The world number 69 held his nerve to defeat Zhe Li 6-3 6-7(4) 6-3 to avoid a mighty scare.
Italy and Kazakhstan also joined the 18 man field early on day two after wins for Andreas Seppi and Mikhail Kukushkin sealing victories over India and Portugal respectively.
Here is the Davis Cup Finals field so far, with seven more nations still to qualify:
- Croatia
- France
- USA
- Spain
- Argentina
- Great Britain
- Australia
- Japan
- Italy
- Germany
- Kazakhstan
