• Davis Cup

Murray seals quarter-final berth for Great Britain

Murray celebrates beating Querrey to seal Great Britain's progression © Getty Images

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Great Britain are into the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup for the first time since 1986 after Andy Murray saw off Sam Querrey in four sets in San Diego.

The British No. 1 saw off his American opponent 7-6 6-7 6-1 6-3 in his country's first win over the US in this competition since 1935.

"That was quite a battle," Murray said. "He was being very aggressive on my serve and forced me to change my tactics in the third - but that allowed me to dictate a lot of the games.

"It's a different feeling to playing in a grand slam because you have the responsibility of doing well for your team-mates.

"But there's still a lot of pressure, like there are in the slams when you're just playing for yourself and your team.

"I love playing in this tournament and it's great to play with these guys who I've known and played with for a long, long time.

"It's a nice feeling, because you're on your own on tour. They've come up with some huge wins in this competition and deserve a lot of the credit.

"We play Italy away next and you have to assume they will want to play on clay - but it's good for me to get some matches on this surface."

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Sam Allardyce had the last laugh against Chelsea © Getty Images

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GB will face Italy in April's quarter-finals after Fabio Fognini defeated Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 6-7(5) 6-4 6-1 6-4 for an unassailable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five series.

It's Italy's first victory over Argentina in Davis Cup play, and the loss ended Argentina's 12-year streak of reaching the quarter-finals.

Elsewhere, defending champions Czech Republic reached the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup after Tomas Berdych won the first reverse singles to clinch the first-round tie.

Berdych, an Australian Open semi-finalist, dispatched Thiemo de Bakker 6-1 6-4 6-3 on an indoor hard court at CEZ Arena to give the Czechs an unbeatable 3-1 lead. In the final meaningless match, Igor Sijsling defeated Lukas Rosol to reduce the Czech overall victory to 3-2 in the best-of-five series.

Seeking their third straight Davis Cup title, the Czechs will travel for the April quarter-final to Japan, who beat Canada 4-1 in another first-round tie.

Japan clinched their first ever quarter-final berth when Canadian Frank Dancevic was forced to retire in the second set of his reverse singles match with Kei Nishikori.

With Nishikori leading 6-2 1-0, Dancevic withdrew with a stomach injury giving Japan an insurmountable 3-1 lead.

Nishikori, who is No. 18 in the world rankings, won both his singles matches and also played in Japan's doubles win on Saturday. Japan improved to 6-0 against Canada in Davis Cup play. The two countries last met in 1938. Go Soeda beat Peter Polansky in the dead rubber to widen the lead to 4-1.

Gael Monfils completed a 5-0 rout as France saw off Australia by defeating Nick Kyrgios 7-6(5) 6-4.

Monfils dropped serve twice but broke Kyrgios three times, after Julien Benneteau cruised past Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-4 6-1 in Sunday's first reverse singles match.

Australia will compete in the playoffs to stay in the World Group, while France will face Germany, after Daniel Brands defeated Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6(5) 6-4 to wrap up a 4-1 win for Germany over Spain.

Brands was the only German player available to play Sunday, after Tommy Haas and Philipp Kohlschreiber won their doubles match Saturday for an unassailable 3-0 lead.

Elsewhere, Dusan Lajovic and Filip Krajinovic won the reverse singles to cushion Switzerland's triumph over Serbia to 3-2. The Swiss had already secured the match with doubles victory on Saturday and will face Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals in April.

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