| | Associated Press
Sweden, France and Switzerland took 2-0 leads in Davis Cup World
Group qualifying play Friday while Italy and Belarus split their
first two matches.
Davis Cup rookie Andreas Vinciguerra and Mikael Tillstrom won
opening singles matches in straight sets for Sweden against India
in a bid to stay in the elite 16-nation World Group.
Vinciguerra put the heavily favored Swedes ahead with a 6-3,
6-1, 6-1 win over Harsh Mankad in Bastad. Then Tillstrom lost only
three games in a 6-2, 6-0, 6-1 victory against Prahlad Srinath.
Tillstrom and Nicklas Kulti can clinch the best-of-five series
for Sweden if they win Saturday's doubles against Mahesh Bhupathi
and Syed Fazaluddin.
Nicolas Escude and Sebastien Grosjean scored straight-set wins
for the French against Austria in Rennes, France. Escude beat
19-year-old Jurgen Melzer 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 before Grosjean defeated
Stefan Koubek 6-3, 6-2, 6-3.
On Saturday, Escude and Olivier Delaitre will face Austrians
Julian Knowle and Thomas Strenberger in doubles.
Roger Federer defeated Vladimir Voltchkov 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (1),
5-7, 6-2, and George Bastl beat Max Mirnyi 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2 as the
Swiss took a 2-0 lead over Belarus in St. Gallen, Switzerland.
If Belarus can dislodge Switzerland, the two teams will trade
places, with the Swiss moving down to the Euro/African zonal group,
the Davis Cup's second-rate division.
In doubles Saturday, Federer and Lorenzo Manta take on Mirnyi
and Voltchkov.
Italy and Belgium split their opening singles. Davide
Sanguinetti came back from a set down to defeat Filip Dewulf, 1-6,
7-6 (5), 7-5, 6-0 after Olivier Rochus downed Andrea Gaudenzi 6-2,
7-5, 6-3 to put Belgium up 1-0. | |
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Friday's results
Spain jumps to 2-0 lead on U.S. in Davis Cup
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