Belarus reach Davis Cup semifinals
MINSK, Belarus -- Max Mirnyi and Vladimir Voltchkov beat Agustin Calleri and Lucas Arnold 6-3, 6-4, 6-1 to give Belarus an unassailable 3-0 lead in the Davis Cup World Group quarterfinal tie against Argentina in Minsk.
Voltchkov and Mirnyi scored straight sets victories in the opening singles Friday and have not dropped a set in two days.
"For 10 years we struggled for this result and today's victory was a reward for it," said Belarus captain Sergei Teterin.
The Argentines were short-handed, playing without injured stars Guillermo Coria and David Nalbandian.
"Yes, it's a very heavy defeat, but we played against a very strong pair. I knew Mirnyi was a perfect player, but I didn't expected that level of tennis from Voltchkov," said Argentina captain Gustavo Luza.
Britain ahead
Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman beat Gilles Muller and Mike Scheidweiler 6-4, 7-6 (7), 6-3 to give Britain a 2-1 lead over Luxembourg in their Europe/Africa Zone Group 1 tie in Esch-Sur-Alzette.
It was Rusedski's first competitive match since January's Australian Open, but the Briton showed few ill-effects from his lay-off.
Britain dominated the first set, and Luxembourg failed to convert a solitary set point in a marathon second set tie-break before two big Rusedski serves got the British out of danger.
Luxembourg made one final push in the third set but failed to convert a break-back point in the Rusedski serve in the sixth game, and Henman served out two games later to put his team firmly back in command.
