Chile, France, Serbia and the Netherlands were victorious Tuesday on the first day of the Davis Cup Finals group stage.
Chile beat Sweden 3-0 to start the action in Group A in Bologna, Italy. France swept Switzerland 3-0 in Manchester, England, in Group B.
Serbia topped South Korea 3-0 in Group C in Valencia, Spain, and Netherlands outlasted Finland 2-1 in Group D in Split, Croatia.
The Davis Cup group stages are taking place Tuesday through Sunday in four cities across Europe. The top two teams in each round-robin group will advance to the knockout stage in Malaga, Spain, Nov. 21-26.
For Chile on Tuesday, Cristian Garin beat Sweden’s Leo Borg 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-5, and Nicolas Jarry eased past Elias Ymer 6-2, 6-4. Marcelo Tomas Barrios Vera and Alejandro Tabilo made it a clean sweep with their 6-4, 7-5 doubles win over Filip Bergevi and Andre Goransson.
Adrian Mannarino and Ugo Humbert locked up France’s win early when Mannarino rallied past Switzerland’s Dominic Stricker 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, and Humbert topped former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-4.
Wawrinka teamed up with Marc-Andrea Huesler to try to earn a point for the Swiss, but France’s team of Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin won their doubles match 6-2, 6-2.
After Dusan Lajovic beat Seongchan Hong 6-4, 7-6 (3), Laslo Djere survived Soonwoo Kwon 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 to earn the match for Serbia.
Serbia’s Nikola Cacic and Miomir Kecmanovic rallied to beat Jisung Nam and Minkyu Song 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) in doubles to take all three matches.
Finland opened its match against the Dutch with a point, when Otto Virtanen beat Botic Van de Zandschulp 7-6 (0), 6-4. But Tallon Griekspoor drew the Netherlands even with a 7-6 (7), 6-3 win over Emil Ruusuvuori.
The match was decided in doubles, when Wesley Koolhof and Matwe Middelkoop of the Netherlands beat Harri Heliovaara and Patrik Niklas-Salminen 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3. The Dutch team won 55 of 66 first-service points (83.3 percent) en route to victory.
The United States will be in action Wednesday against Croatia in Group D. Defending champion Canada will also play its first match of the stage Wednesday in Group A against Italy.
–Field Level Media
