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ITFWorld spring 2019 web 21 May

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20 ITFWorld // SPRING 2019 France, Croatia, USA and Spain qualified for November's festival of tennis by virtue of reaching last year's semifinals, while Argentina and Great Britain were handed wildcards. The remaining 12 nations reached Madrid following success in February's Qualifiers. The Qualifiers, which encapsulated the traditional home- and-away values of the competition, were entertaining and enthralling in equal measure as Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Germany, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Russia and Serbia prevailed. Australia progressed at the expense of Bosnia and Herzegovina on a sweltering weekend in Adelaide, claiming victory in a Davis Cup tie for the first time since 2017 without dropping a set. All five of Lleyton Hewitt's team – John Millman, Alex de Minaur John Peers, Jordan Thompson and Alexei Popyrin – contributed to the 4-0 clean sweep. Belgium, meanwhile, turned the tables on Brazil after losing the opening rubber in Uberlandia as Kimmer Coppejans emerged as the hero for the visitors. Despite never previously winning a live rubber, Coppejans won two crucial matches to stoke Belgium's victory march. Coppejans overcame Thiago Monteiro 6-3 6-4 on the Sunday to hand Belgium an unassailable lead after Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen had caused a major upset in the doubles by defeating decorated pair Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares. Youth triumphed over experience in Bratislava as teenagers Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime held their nerve to post pivotal singles wins and fire Canada to victory at the expense of Slovakia. Trailing 2-1 after the doubles, Canadian No. 1 Shapovalov, who was then 19, restored parity by defeating his opposite number Martin Klizan 7-6(1) 6-4, which paved the way Auger-Aliassime to dispatch Norbert Gombos 6-3 6-4. It was a similar story in Salzburg as Christian Garin powered to victory in the decisive fifth rubber as Chile posted a 3-2 success against Austria, who had led after the doubles following a win for veteran pair Jurgen Melzer and Oliver Marach. The fightback started when Nicolas Jarry overcame Dennis Novak 6-4 3-6 7-6(2) in the fourth rubber and was completed by Garin, who brushed aside Jurij Rodionov 6-2 6-1 as Chile took their competition record against Austria to 4-0. Colombia earned a shot at Davis Cup glory by romping to a resounding 4-0 obliteration of Sweden in Bogota. All five Colombians – Santiago Giraldo, Daniel Elahi Galan, Juan Sebastian Cabal, Robert Farah and Alejandro Gonzalez – emerged with a win to their name. Giraldo, whose feat of being his country's most successful Davis Cup player was marked before Sunday's doubles, started the Colombia juggernaut by overpowering Elias Ymer in the opening singles rubber. In Frankfurt, Germany eased to a 5-0 victory in their first showdown with Hungary in 41 years to book their place in the Finals, although Philipp Kohlschreiber had to navigate a stern examination in the opening rubber against Zsombor Piros. Teenager Piros took the first set, although Kohlschreiber retaliated to win 6-7(6) 7-5 6-4, the way for two singles victories for Alexander Zverev, doubles joy for Tim Puetz and Jan-Lennard Struff and a further triumph for himself. On the grass courts of Calcutta, Andreas Seppi claimed wins in the first and fourth rubbers, against Ramkumar Ramanathan and Prajnesh Gunneswaran respectively, to propel Italy to victory over India. A doubles win, secured courtesy of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan defeating Matteo Berrettini and Simone Bolelli, proved a false dawn for India, who by that stage were trailing 2-0, as Seppi unleashed the knockout blow. Japan emerged from a nerve-shredding showdown with "Madrid will be the world capital of tennis and sport for a week." G E R A R D P I Q U E Davis Cup Qualifiers UZBEKISTAN 2-3 SERBIA AUSTRALIA 4-0 BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA SLOVAKIA 2-3 CANADA KAZAKHSTAN 3-1 PORTUGAL D AV I S C U P , T H E W O R L D C U P O F T E N N I S

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