The China Mail - Germany, France, Argentina, Austria on brink of Davis Cup finals

The seven winners of the best-of-five matches in this weekend's qualifiers advance to November's "Final 8" hosted by defending champions Italy in Bologna.

In Tokyo, Jan-Lennard Struff and Yannick Hanfmann got former three-time winners Germany off the mark against Japan.

Struff battled past Yoshihito Nishioka 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4 with Hanfmann seeing off Shintaro Mochizuki 6-3, 6-3.

In Groningen, Argentina's Tomas Martin Etcheverry beat Jesper De Jong 6-4, 6-4 and Francisco Cerundolo dispatched Botic Van De Zandschulp 7-6 (7/4), 6-1.

"It's tough to swallow," said De Jong as the Netherlands need to win Saturday's doubles to stay in the competition.

"It was an amazing atmosphere which I tried to use. I'm gutted I didn't get the win for them."

Davis Cup novice Corentin Moutet got France off the mark on indoor clay in Croatia beating Dino Prizmic 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 in Osijek.

The 26-year-old Frenchman had to work hard in a match that lasted 3hr 17min against the 20-year-old Prizmic who has moved up from 400th to 119th in the ATP rankings this year.

Arthur Rinderknech later eased past veteran Marin Cilic 6-2, 6-4 in the second rubber.

"It's an ideal scenario. We obviously prefer to finish at 2-0 even if I know full well that the hardest part is tomorrow," said France captain Paul-Henri Mathieu.

In Debrecen, 173rd-ranked Jurij Rodionov gave Austria their first point against Hungary with an upset of 59th-ranked Fabian Marozsan 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 7-5.

Lukas Neumayer later dispatched Marton Fucsovics 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (9/7) to leave the hosts with a mountain to climb to advance to the finals.

"It was a crazy match," said 23-year-old Rodionov.

"It could have gone either way. I kept fighting, I keep grinding and believing in myself."

The United States, record 32-times winners, split the first two singles with Czech Republic in Delray Beach, Florida.

World number five Taylor Fritz clawed back a point with gritty 6-4, 6-3 victory over 17th-ranked Jakub Mensik.

Fritz gained the decisive break of the opening set in the seventh game then romped to a 5-1 lead in the second. But serving for the match at 5-2 he let a 40-0 lead get away and was broken.

Mensik then seized a 40-0 lead as he served to extend the match, but Fritz hung on, winning the next five points to take the match when Mensik sailed a backhand long.

"We needed this one, so it feels great to come out and deliver for the team," Fritz said.

Jiri Lehecka grabbed the first point for the Czechs, blowing past Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 6-2 in just 69 minutes in an opener delayed more than an hour by rain.

Lehecka, ranked 16th in the world, fired eight aces and did not face a break point.

In ties starting Saturday, Australia bid to reach the Davis Cup finals for a fourth straight year against Belgium in Sydney while Denmark take on six-time champions Spain in Marbella.

K.Lam--ThChM