Davis Cup: Zizou Bergs leads Belgium past France into semis

NEW DELHI: Zizou Bergs beat Arthur Rinderknech 6-3, 7-6(4) to send Belgium into the Davis Cup semifinals with a 2-0 victory over 10-time champion France on Tuesday night.

Belgium had lost its last four meetings with France, including in the 2017 final. It will face either No. 1 Italy or Austria on Friday.

The last two quarterfinals will be held on Thursday — No. 2 Germany will face Argentina, and Spain will take on the No. 4-seeded Czech Republic.

Bergs was in control throughout against the top French player and sealed the match with a superb forehand winner down the line.

Earlier, Raphael Collignon rallied past Corentin Moutet 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 to give Belgium a 1-0 lead. Ties are played as a best-of-three matches, so the doubles was not played.

Both nations were back at this stage of the team competition for the first time since it was revamped in 2019. The Davis Cup Final 8 in Bologna is the sixth edition of the event to have the champion decided at a neutral site.

Moutet played solid tennis until the 12th game of the second set when he hit two double faults and fluffed an easy point at the net after trying a between-the-legs shot, dropping his serve as Collignon forced a decider.

A similar scenario unfolded in the third set as Collignon made the decisive break in the final game.

“It was a crazy match,” Collignon said. “I think I was maybe a bit lucky that he chose to do this tweener at 6-5 because it was tough for me. I was not playing so good. He was dominating the match.”

Spain is without top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, who withdrew earlier on Tuesday because of a hamstring injury. Agencies

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