Marat Safin saved Russia and sent the defending champions into the Davis Cup semifinals.
The former top-ranked Russian played for the first time in the best-of-five series on Sunday and beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6 (3), 6-3, 6-2 in the deciding match to give the hosts a 3-2 win over France.
”It was a pure accident,” said Safin, who is 29-18 in the Davis Cup. ”I have not been playing for a long time and won quite unexpectedly.”
Germany, Sweden and the United States qualified for the semifinals on Saturday, each taking 3-0 leads.
Safin, a two-time Grand Slam champion, broke Mathieu in the second game of the second set and twice in the third set on clay in Moscow. In the first set, Mathieu’s powerful serve helped him save four break points in the 11th game, but Safin then served two aces and forced a tiebreaker.
Safin had 14 aces and 27 winners in the match.
In the first reverse singles match, Sebastien Grosjean beat Igor Andreev 7-5, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Grosjean, who was a late addition to the French team for the Davis Cup quarterfinals, broke Andreev in the fifth game of the final set with a forehand crosscourt shot and held on to win on his second match point.
”I tried to stay concentrated and be more aggressive,” Grosjean said. ”I was more motivated and fresh in the end of the match.”
The match was the third straight in the series to go five sets.
Mikhail Youzhny beat Richard Gasquet 6-2, 6-3, 6-7 (8), 5-7, 8-6 in Friday’s second singles match, and Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko edged Grosjean and Michael Llodra 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in Saturday’s doubles.
Russia also beat France to win their first Davis Cup title in 2002 and again in the quarterfinals in 2005 and 2006. France haven’t beaten Russia since 1983.
Russia, who extended their unbeaten streak at home to 13, will face Germany in the September 21 to 23 semifinals.
Belgium won the final two points at home on clay in Ostend against Germany. Christophe Rochus beat Michael Kohlmann 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, and Dick Norman downed Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-3.
On Saturday, Germany clinched their first semifinal spot in a dozen years after Alexander Waske and Kohlmann beat Olivier and Christophe Rochus 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.
Juan Martin del Potro gave Argentina their only point in a 4-1 loss to Sweden by beating Robert Lindstedt 7-6 (7), 6-4 in the final match of the series.
Earlier, Jonas Bjorkman easily beat Sebastian Prieto 6-1, 6-2. ”It’s getting more and more difficult to play meaningless Davis Cup matches,” said Bjorkman, a three-time Davis Cup champion. ”We’ve got our three wins, but you must try the best you can because the fans are here and they want so see good tennis.”
Bjorkman teamed with Thomas Johansson to win Saturday’s doubles against Guillermo Canas and David Nalbandian.
Sweden will play the US in the semifinals.
The 31-time champion Americans advanced on indoor hard courts in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The top-ranked doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan beat Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez of Spain 7-5, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) on Saturday.
Spain played without second-ranked Rafael Nadal, who withdrew with an injury.
On Sunday, Andy Roddick was expected to face Tommy Robredo and James Blake was set to play Verdasco. — Sapa-AP