Davis Cup: Australia, USA, France And Spain All Through To Next Stage

Australia, Spain, France and the United States are among 12 nations who qualified for the next stage of the Davis Cup on Saturday.

Australia, the 28-time champions, came from 2-1 down against Hungary to win both Saturday’s singles matches and progress.

Defending champions Russia have been banned from the tournament following their country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The first stage of the finals which will be played in September.

There are 16 teams involved, with Croatia, Great Britain and Serbia having already qualified.

Davis Cup chiefs will decide next week who will replace Russia.

Those 16 teams will then become eight for the quarter-finals in November.

Thanasi Kokkinakis, the Australian Open doubles champion, won the decisive singles rubber 6-4 6-4 against Hungary’s Zsombor Piros in his first Davis Cup match in seven years.

The 25-year-old won his first ATP singles title in Adelaide in January and then triumphed in the Australian Open doubles with Nick Kyrgios, earning him a recall to Lleyton Hewitt’s Australia team.

“Thank you Lleyton for trusting me, it’s been a long time since I played and to play a fifth rubber at home has been incredible,” he said.

After Hungary won the doubles to go 2-1 up, world number 30 Alex de Minaur beat 35th-ranked Marton Fucsovics 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 at Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Arena to level scores before Kokkinakis sealed the tie in Australia’s favour.

Spain, the six-time champions, advanced with relative ease despite missing the services of Rafael Nadal.

World number 15 Roberto Bautista Agut beat Romania’s Marius Copil 6-2 6-3 to clinch a 3-1 win.

France, 10-time Davis Cup champions, beat Ecuador 3-0 in Pau and the United States, who have won the trophy a record 32 times, eased past Colombia by the same score.

Results

Australia 3 Hungary 2

South Korea 3 Austria 1

France 4 Ecuador 0

Spain 3 Romania 1

Belgium 3 Finland 2

Netherlands 4 Canada 0

Italy 3 Slovakia 2

Kazakhstan 3 Norway 1

Sweden 3 Japan 2

Argentina 4 Czech Republic 0

Germany 3 Brazil 1

USA 3 Colombia 0