Dusseldorf, Germany (Sports Network) - The Czech Republic and Serbia will
square off in Saturday's best-of-three final at the World Team Cup tennis
event, a final clay-court French Open tune-up.
The Czechs (3-0) secured their berth in the final with a tie-ending doubles
victory over 2011 runner-up and 2010 champion Argentina in the four-nation
round-robin Red Group.
After splitting a pair of singles rubbers over the last two days at
Rochusclub, a Czech tandem of Radek Stepanek and Frantisek Cermak snuck past
an Argentine duo of Carlos Berlocq and Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 4-6, 10-3 on
Friday. Earlier in the day, Mayer pulled Argentina (2-1) even with the Czechs
with a 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 6-4 victory over Stepanek. On Thursday, former
Wimbledon and recent Madrid Masters runner-up Tomas Berdych beat Berlocq 6-1,
6-7 (2-7), 6-3.
This week's other Red Group combatants were the four-time winner United States
(1-2) and Japan (0-3).
The Serbs (3-0) captured the four-country Blue Group with a victory over the
defending champion Germans (2-1).
Janko Tipsarevic gave 2009 champion Serbia an insurmountable 2-0 lead against
Germany with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 victory over Philipp Kohlschreiber. Viktor
Troicki gave the Serbs a 1-0 lead on Thursday by handling Florian Mayer 7-6
(8-6), 6-3.
A meaningless doubles rubber saw a German tandem of Philipp Petzschner and
Christopher Kas douse a Serbian duo of Marko Jankovic and Nenad Zimonjic 6-4,
6-4.
Germany captured a record-breaking fifth World Team title with victory
over four-time champion Argentina a year ago.
The other Blue Group participants this week were Russia (1-2) and Croatia
(0-3). The Russians beat the former champion Croats 2-1, including a pair of
wins on Friday when Alex Bogomolov Jr. leveled Lovro Zovko 6-4, 6-2 and a
Russian pairing of Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov overcame a Croatian duo
of Zovko and Ivan Dodig 2-6, 6-3, 10-3.
The Sports Network