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Germany lose to Belarus in playoff
SUNDERN, Germany -- Belarus advanced to the Davis Cup World Group for the first time when Max Mirnyi beat Rainer Schuettler in straight sets, sending Germany out of the top division for the first time in 20 years. U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick sealed victory for the U.S. in Slovakia with a 6-3 6-4 6-4 win over Karol Beck. Austria also advanced to the World Group, with Stefan Koubek clinching their place in an epic 6-7 6-2 7-5 4-6 6-3 win over Belgium's Olivier Rochus. In Sundern, Mirnyi cruised past Schuettler 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 in the first of reverse singles, to secure victory for Belarus with one singles remaining. Germany will now play in Euro/African Zone I, another sign of the country's tennis decline since the retirement of Boris Becker and Michael Stich. The big-serving Mirnyi, 27th in the ATP entry rankings, appeared comfortable on the slow red clay of the Blau-Weiss club, especially after Schuettler hurt his right ankle midway through the second set. Mirnyi caught Schuettler on the wrong foot with a volley and the German tumbled over. He needed treatment and his ankle was sprayed for a long time before he returned. Schuettler, ranked eight in the entry system, had beaten Mirnyi in four of their previous five matches but he was unable to raise his game this time. The Germans had picked clay as the surface in an effort to blunt Mirnyi's big serve-and-volley game but he won both his singles, surviving two match points before prevailing over Davis Cup rookie Tomas Behrend in five sets. Mirnyi and his partner Vladimir Voltchkov beat Schuettler and Nicolas Kiefer 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 in Saturday's doubles to give Belarus a 2-1 lead. Tough positionRoddick's victory in Bratislava was his first in four attempts on clay in the Davis Cup and made amends for his defeat by Dominik Hrbaty in Friday's singles. "I put my team in a very tough position and I'm just glad I was able to come out and get a win," said Roddick. Austria's Koubek overcame a bout of cramps in a four-hour cliffhanger against Rochus on sun-baked clay at Poertschach and said crowd support had carried him to victory. "Without their support I could never have managed it," he said. "I was dead in the fifth set and couldn't run anymore.
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