Britain faces Australia, Argentina gets Belgium in Davis Cup

LONDON (AP) — A tearful Andy Murray celebrated taking Britain to its first Davis Cup semifinal for more than three decades on Sunday, sealing an emotional 3-1 victory over France to line up a home series against Australia.

The Australians rallied from 2-0 down on Friday to edge Kazakhstan 3-2 on Sunday, with Lleyton Hewitt winning the decider.

Argentina will visit Belgium in the other semifinal, after the South Americans wrapped up a 4-1 victory over Serbia and Belgium completed a clean sweep with a 5-0 win over Canada.

The two series will be played Sept. 18-20 for a place in the final in November.

Murray, who was playing less than two weeks after losing to Roger Federer in the Wimbledon semifinals, said: “You can’t control your emotions. When they come they come, it was good to let it out. It’s been a tough 10 days or so.”

Murray was pivotal in all three of Britain’s wins on the grass courts of the Queen’s Club, beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Friday to level the series at 1-1 before partnering brother Jamie to victory in Saturday’s doubles.

Fatigue looked to have taken its toll on the world No. 3 as Gilles Simon led by a set and 4-2, but Murray fought back to secure Britain’s first World Group semifinal since 1981 with a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-0 victory.

“I’ve always enjoyed playing Davis Cup but obviously right now we’re in the World Group playing against great players, top teams, in big matches in fantastic atmospheres,” Murray said. “It’s very hard not to get up for that.”

In Darwin, Australia’s Sam Groth opened play on Sunday by beating Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 7-6 (6), 4-6, 7-6 (6) to make it 2-2 and Hewitt followed up with a stirring 7-6 (2), 6-2, 6-3 win over Aleksandr Nedovyesov.

Hewitt fell on to his back when Nedovyesov’s forehand went long. Teammates Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis — who were both replaced in the reverse singles after losing their matches Friday — ran onto the grass court to hug him before he went to the net to shake hands with his Kazakh opponent.

“We didn’t have everything go our way this weekend, we had to rally,” Hewitt said. “We were playing for the boys on the side of the court and the nation, as well.”

Kazakhstan captain Dias Doskarayev said “We lost four tiebreaks. Tiebreaks are kind of a lottery. So the tennis gods were on the Aussie side. That’s sport.”

Belgium had no such difficulty against a Canada team that arrived without injured top-30 players Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil and that had already lost the series on clay in Ostend after Saturday’s doubles.

Kimmer Coppejans rallied to beat Frank Dancevic 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 and Steve Darcis then defeated Filip Peliwo 6-4, 6-3 on Sunday as Belgium headed for its first semifinals since 1999.

Argentina had also wrapped up qualification a day early, taking a 3-0 lead against Serbia after the doubles in Buenos Aires.

Serbia, which was missing top-ranked Novak Djokovic, claimed a consolation point from Sunday’s opening singles when Dusan Lajovic beat Diego Schwartzman 6-1, 6-4.

But his teammate Filip Krajinovic retired from the final match, trailing 6-1, 3-0 to Carlos Berlocq.

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.