Bob and Mike Bryan beat French opponents Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau 6-4 6-4 7-6 (7-4) in their doubles rubber here on Saturday to give the USA a 2-1 lead in their Davis Cup World Group quarter-final.

America’s No.1 singles player John Isner can seal their place in the semi-finals should he beat French No.1 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Sunday’s first singles rubber.

Statistics do not favour the French as they have only come back to win on six occasions out of a possible 37 when they have trailed 2-1 going into the final day.

Llodra — who will partner Tsonga at the Olympics in the doubles — and Benneteau were outclassed by the world’s best doubles partnership, with the latter totally out of sorts.

The French duo failed totally to make captain Guy Forget’s prediction of plenty of break points come true as they only once managed to even get to deuce on their opponents’ service.

Indeed so ineffective were they against the Bryans’ serve that they won just five points in the first set, seven in the second and eight in the third.

By contrast they had their service broken in the first game of both the first and second sets, handing an advantage to the Americans that they never looked like conceding.