• Davis Cup

France and Argentina reach Davis Cup semi-finals

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Michael Llodra celebrate their victory © Getty Images

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• Profile: Novak Djokovic | Michael Llodra | Feliciano Lopez | Jo-Wilfried Tsonga | Fernando Verdasco

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga joined forces with Michael Llodra as France sealed their place in the Davis Cup semi-finals after racing to a 3-0 lead against Germany.

Following his semi-final appearance at Wimbledon, Tsonga showed no signs of fatigue as he and Llodra overcame Philipp Petzschner and Christopher Kas in straight sets, 7-6(4) 6-4 6-4 as France reached an unassailable lead following Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils' singles victories on Friday.

France have now won six consecutive ties against Germany; they have not lost to their rivals since 1938.

France await either Spain or USA in September's semi-finals after Bob and Mike Bryan battled back from a set down to keep American hopes alive in Texas. The top-ranked twins beat Marcel Granollers and Fernando Verdasco 6-7(3) 6-4 6-4 6-4 to reduce the deficit to 2-1 heading into Sunday's singles rubbers.

Novak Djokovic's first outing as world No. 1 ended in defeat as Sweden kept their Davis Cup tie against defending champions Serbia alive with doubles victory.

In what is likely to be Simon Aspelin's last Davis Cup match, the Swede bowed out with an impressive victory as he and Robert Lindstedt reduced the deficit to 2-1 against the defending champions.

Serbia took a commanding 2-0 lead on Friday thanks to victories for Janko Tipsarevic and Viktor Troicki, but Aspelin and Lindstedt gave the home fans something to cheer about with a 6-4 7-6(5) 7-5 victory over Djokovic and doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic.

Argentina await the winners after the South Americans completed a 5-0 whitewash against Kazakhstan. Juan Ignacio Chela and Eduardo Schwank's 6-3 6-2 7-5 doubles victory over Yuriy Schukin and Evgeny Korolev sealed the win on Saturday, and Chela and Juan Monaco completed the rout.

Chela came from behind to beat Korolev 2-6 6-2 6-0 before Monaco finished things off in style with a 6-4 6-1 win over Mikhail Kukushkin.

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