Canada’s Milos Raonic celebrates his win over Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez with team-mates during the final round of the Davis Cup tie in Vancouver, British Columbia, on Sunday.
PARIS: Short-handed five-time champions Spain crashed out of the Davis Cup late on Sunday when Canada completed a famous World Group triumph while 32-time winners United States edged Brazil in a dogfight.
Milos Raonic secured the crucial winning point in Canada’s 3-2 victory in Vancouver by beating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to send Canada into their first Davis Cup quarter-final.
They will tackle Italy in April for a place in the semi-finals.
Missing top players Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer, Nicolas Almagro and Fernando Verdasco, Spain, winners of the title three times in the last five years, and the 2012 runners-up, had been 2-0 down on Friday.
Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez kept their hopes alive with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-2 victory over Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil in Saturday’s doubles.
But Raonic, the world number 15, was unstoppable on Sunday firing 22 aces and 55 winners past the hapless Garcia-Lopez, the world 82, as Spain were beaten in the opening round for the first time since 2006.
Albert Ramos beat Frank Dancevic 7-5, 6-4 in a dead rubber to create the final margin.
The United States escaped an upset when Sam Querrey rallied to beat Thiago Alves 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) and give the Americans a 3-2 triumph. Querrey fired 26 aces for a perfect weekend in his first Davis Cup home tie.
Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci battled back to defeat John Isner 2-6, 6-4, 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 6-3, in Sunday’s opener at Jacksonville, Florida.
Isner fired 22 aces in the clash but also committed 81 unforced errors.
The US had been 2-0 ahead on Friday before twins Bob and Mike Bryan suffered a stunning loss in the doubles -- just the third of their Davis Cup career -- to Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares, going down 7-6 (8/6), 6-7 (7/9), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
The Americans will meet 2010 champions Serbia, who had already defeated Belgium.
Tomas Berdych beat Stanislas Wawrinka in a battle of Davis Cup ironmen as defending champions Czech Republic reached the quarter-finals.
The Czechs led Switzerland 2-1 overnight after Berdych and Lukas Rosol beat Wawrinka and Marco Chiudinelli 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 24-22 in the longest-ever Davis Cup match, an exhausting doubles which lasted a minute over seven hours.
Meanwhile, in Turin, Italy beat Croatia to make the quarter-finals for the first time since 1998.
Italy had led 2-1 overnight but Marin Cilic won his second singles match of the tie by easing past Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-3, 7-5 yesterday.
Fabio Fognini then saw off Ivan Dodig 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to clinch the winning point.
“In Davis Cup, everyone wins or everyone loses...it wasn’t just my victory, it was Italy’s victory,” tweeted Fognini after the match.
The other quarter-final matchwill see Argentina facing France after they completed comfortable victories over Germany and Israel respectively in the first round of the Davis Cup. AFP
