Australia and France one win away from Davis Cup final
Monday 18 September 2017 14:22, UK
France and Australia claimed the doubles rubbers on Saturday to stand on the brink of a return to the Davis Cup final.
Both countries had been forced to come back from 1-0 down in Friday's opening singles matches and after the French pair made short work of Serbia in Lille, the Aussies followed suit by beating Belgium on the clay in Brussels.
One more victory for both will set up a repeat of the 2001 final when France last claimed the title with a 3-2 success over Australia who themselves have not won the trophy since captain Leyton Hewitt was part of a 3-1 win over Spain in 2003.
Nick Kyrgios has the chance to win the tie for Australia when he faces David Goffin in Sunday's opening rubber and Steve Darcis will face John Millman in the fifth match of the contest if Goffin is victorious.
Serbia's hopes of extending the contest lay with Dusan Lajovic, their highest-ranked player in the absence of Novak Djokovic, Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki. He faces Jo-Wilfried Tsonga before Lucas Pouille faces Laslo Djere if required.
After the drama of Friday's opening singles contests, the doubles matches were a lot more straightforward with John Peers and Jordan Thompson teaming up for Australia to beat Rubens Bemelmans and Arthur de Greef 6-3 6-4 6-0.
And as expected Two-time Grand Slam doubles winners Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut needed just under two hours to blitz Filip Krajinovic and Nenad Zimonjic - a 6-1 6-2 7-6 victory moved France to the brink of a fourth final since they last won the Davis Cup.
Should France and Australia make it through to the final it would be held in Australia after France won the last meeting between the pair - a 5-0 first round victory in France in 2014 that featured both Kyrgios and Hewitt as well as Tsonga.
