Argentina lead France 2-1 in their Davis Cup World Group quarter-final tie after David Nalbandian and Horacio Zeballos came from behind to win Saturday’s doubles.
French duo Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra took the first set but Nalbandian and Zeballos fought back to clinch the match 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-5, 6-3 to give the hosts the upper hand ahead of Sunday’s reverse singles.
The teams were all square after Argentine Juan Monaco had levelled the tie following Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s victory over Carlos Berlocq on Friday.
Monaco is set to face Tsonga in the opening singles on Sunday, with Berlocq up against Gilles Simon.
“Tomorrow the match remains very open. We’ve got the advantage, we’ve got to get just one point, while they need two. Both singles will be very competitive. We’re leading, let’s hope we can win,” said Argentine captain Martin Jaite.
Serbia took a major step towards the Davis Cup semi-finals by outlasting host USA in a marathon five-set victory in Saturday’s doubles clash.
Ilija Bozoljac and Nenad Zimonjic shocked the top-ranked doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-1) 5-7 4-6 15-13 to give Serbia a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five tie heading into a pair of Sunday’s reverse singles matches.
World No.1 and reigning Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic can send Serbia into the semis with a win on Sunday over American Sam Querrey, who is ranked 20th in the world.
Querrey has lost five of six career meetings to Djokovic and the Serb comfortably beat Querrey 6-0 7-6 (8-6) in their most recent contest, last month in Indian Wells, California.
In a match that lasted four hours, 23 minutes on Saturday, the Serb duo jumped out to a two-set lead before the Bryan brothers battled back.
In the other reverse singles match Sunday, Viktor Troicki would take on American world No.23 John Isner if necessary.
The winner of the US and Serbia quarter-final tie will meet the winner of the Canada and Italy tie which the Canadians lead 2-1 after a win in a similar Saturday doubles match that lasted four hours, 27 minutes.
The hosts put themselves in position to advance when Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil outlasted Italy’s Fabio Fognini and Daniele Bracciali 6-3 6-4 3-6 3-6 15-13 in another marathon doubles rubber.
On Sunday, Canada can close out the tie when rising star Milos Raonic faces Andreas Seppi in a battle of world top-20 players.
Kazakhstan kept alive their hopes of a place in the semis for the first time as Andrey Golubev and Yuriy Schukin beat Czech Republic’s Jan Hajek and Radek Stepanek to cut the deficit to 2-1.
