South American rivals in showdown
 |  Canas was ruthless in his defeat of Czech teenager Berdych |
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DUESSELDORF, Germany (Reuters) -- Argentina's Guillermo Coria and Guillermo Canas prepared for Thursday's showdown with champions Chile with victory over the Czech Republic at the World Team Cup on Tuesday.
The clash between the South American rivals will decide the finalists from the Red Group after Chile also chalked up their second successive win with a 2-1 triumph over France.
Coria ensured that title favourites Argentina did not slip up against the Czech wildcards in the eight-team event by defeating Jiri Novak 6-3 7-5.
World number 10 Canas was even more ruthless against teenager Thomas Berdych, dishing out a 6-4 6-2 defeat in the second singles.
Novak proved to be a stubborn opponent in the second set before French Open runner-up Coria broke in the 11th game of the second set to secure the 77-minute victory.
"This tournament is always important to me and beating Chile will be a very difficult task," said Coria.
Chile remained neck-and-neck in the standings with Argentina as both have won four of their five matches so far in the tournament.
Chile's Nicolas Massu could have been forgiven for being blinded by Frenchman Arnaud Clement's bright orange outfit but he kept his eye on the ball to carve out a 6-4 6-4 victory.
Olympic champion Fernando Gonzalez kept Chile in the hunt for a hat-trick of titles at the Rochusclub by defeating French number one Sebastien Grosjean with an identical 6-4 6-4 scoreline.
Host nation Germany hold a slender lead in the Blue Group over Spain.
The eight countries play in two round-robin groups of four teams each and the top nation in each section will progress to the final.
