ESPN Tennis

MOSCOW -- Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic shrugged off flu-like symptoms to rescue Serbia's Davis Cup hopes against Russia on Saturday.

Djokovic, playing his first match since winning his first Grand Slam title in Melbourne last month, joined forces with Nenad Zimonjic to thrash Russians Mikhail Youzhny and Dmitry Tursunov 6-3, 7-6, 7-6 in the doubles portion of their first-round matchup.

The win kept alive Serbia's chances to pull off a difficult comeback after the Russians had won both of their singles matches on Friday.

Russia still leads 2-1 and needs just one more victory from the two reverse singles on Sunday to advance to the quarterfinals.

The Serbs had come to Moscow with high hopes of causing an upset over the 2006 champions and last year's finalists but were hampered after injury and illness sidelined both of their top two players from the opening singles.

Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic was ruled out of the three-day tie at Moscow's Luzhniki arena with a stomach bug and an ankle injury.

On Saturday, however, it was the Russians who were handicapped with Tursunov replacing former world No. 1 Marat Safin, who was nursing a calf injury.

"They are still the favorites but we're not [giving] up our fight," added Djokovic, who is scheduled to face Russia's Nikolay Davydenko in the first reverse singles followed by Youzhny playing 114th-ranked Viktor Troicki in the last match Sunday.

The winner will play the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals in April.

France tops Romania to set up quarterfinal match vs. US

SIBIU, Romania -- Arnaud Clement and Michael Llorda guided France into the Davis Cup quarterfinals following a 6-3, 6-4, 6-7, 3-6, 6-2 doubles win over Romania on Saturday.

The four-hour victory over Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau gave France an unbeatable 3-0 lead and secured a showdown with the defending champion United States in April.

"Playing the United States is a magnificent challenge. On paper, they're better than we are. They're the best team in the world with Andy Roddick, James Blake and the Bryan brothers," said French captain Guy Forget.

Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and world No. 7 Richard Gasquet won their opening singles on Friday to leave the nine-time champions one win shy of the victory with three matches left in the tie.

With Clement and Llodra avenging their 2007 first-round defeat by the same Romanian duo on Saturday, the French wrapped up the tie with a day to spare and extended their head-to-head record to 8-1.

"We survived a scare. After wasting two match points, we feared the match would go the other way," said Llodra.

Forget added: "It could have been an easy weekend but that doubles match made it a bit complicated. It made me mad to see it go to a fifth set. They scared me and all the staff."

After taking the first set with ease, Clement and Llodra snapped up the second after the forward charging Romanians were duped by a lucky netcord.

Mergea and Tecau displayed their battling skills when they saved two match points in the third set before securing it 8-6 in the tiebreak.

France was further frustrated when they also dropped the fourth set but charged back in the decider to seal the tie.

Andrei Pavel and Victor Hanescu will be hoping to restore at least some pride for the Romanians in Sunday's reverse singles.

Australia rallies to advance past Taiwan

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Lleyton Hewitt and Paul Hanley came from two sets down to win their doubles match Saturday and Australia clinched a victory over Taiwan in the first round of the Davis Cup.

Hewitt and Hanley beat Jimmy Wang and Lu Yen-hsun 2-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in the 3½-hour hard-court match at the Yangming Tennis Stadium in Kaohsiung, giving Australia a 3-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

In the opening singles Friday, Hewitt cruised past Taiwan's Chen Ti 6-4, 6-0, 6-3, and Chris Guccione outlasted Lu 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 7-6 (11-9).

Australia will host the winner of Kazakhstan-Thailand in the second round in April.

Argentina reaches Davis Cup quarters after defeat of Britain

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- Argentina advanced to the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup after David Nalbandian and Jose Acasuso won the doubles to clinch a 3-0 lead over Britain on Saturday.

The pair defeated Jamie Murray and Ross Hutchins 6-2, 7-6 (13), 6-0. Argentina qualifies to play either Sweden or Israel in the next round.

The ninth-ranked Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri had given Argentina a 2-0 lead Friday after straight-set victories in the opening singles matches over two lesser-ranked British players.

Nalbandian's shot placement helped break Hutchins' serve twice in the first set, played on red outdoor clay at the 14,500-seat Parque Roca stadium.

The only real battle came in the tight second set as Murray and Hutchins went ahead 5-4 with passing and drop shots. Britain saved seven set points between the last game and the tiebreaker before ultimately losing 13-11.

That seemed to sap the British team as Argentina took a 2-0 lead in the third set when light rain caused a 45-minute delay. It only took 18 more minutes when play resumed to wrap up the match.

Berdych, Stepanek guide Czechs to quarters

OSTRAVA, Czech Republic -- Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek fought back from a set down to give the Czech Republic an unbeatable 3-0 lead over Belgium and a place in the Davis Cup quarterfinals on Saturday.

The Czech pair needed 4 hours, 21 minutes to beat Olivier Rochus and Kristof Vliegen 6-7, 7-6, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 in the doubles match at the CEZ arena.

"We are glad we managed to finish the Belgians off today," said Stepanek. "The doubles were extremely hard."

The Czechs fielded their top two singles players, changing the original selection of doubles specialists Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner while Vliegen replaced Ruben Bemelmans for Belgium.

Rochus, the Belgian team's top player ranked 56th in the world, missed Friday's singles because he was not fully fit, but he seemed in top form on Saturday, showing fine work at the net.

The Czechs will meet Russia or Serbia in the quarterfinals. Russia leads that tie 2-1 after Saturday's doubles.

With doubles win, Israel leads Sweden

RAMAT HASHARON, Israel -- Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich gave Israel a 2-1 lead over Sweden in their Davis Cup first- round series with a 6-3, 7-6, 7-5 doubles win over Simon Aspelin and Robert Lindstedt on Saturday.

Australian Open doubles champions Erlich and Ram put on a thrilling display in bright sunshine to give Israel the psychological edge ahead of Sunday's reverse singles.

After winning his singles match on Friday, Dudi Sela will hope to wrap up the World Group series against the seven-time champions when he plays Thomas Johansson on Sunday. Harel Levy will take on Jonas Bjorkman in the final match.

"We have put ourselves in a good position for tomorrow with two chances to get the point we need," Israeli captain Eyal Ran said.

The Israelis got off to a flying start after a sluggish Aspelin lost his opening service game and Swedes never recovered from the setback.

After a tight second set, Erlich and Ram showed their class in the ensuing tiebreak to take it 7-3.

"I think the confidence we generate to each other even in tough situations is what gives us the opportunity to end up as winners," Erlich said.

The winner of the tie will take on either Argentina or Britain in the quarterfinals in April.

Germany up 2-1 over South Korea after doubles victory

BERLIN -- Philipp Kohlschreiber and Philipp Petzschner made short work of South Korea's An Jae-sung and Jun Woong-sun to win Saturday's doubles 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 and give Germany a 2-1 lead in their Davis Cup first-round series in Braunschweig.

The German duo proved far too strong for its opponents on the indoor red clay at the Volkswagen Halle and the result was never in doubt.

Behind a strong serve, the Germans broke South Korea's first two service games to set the tone on their way to taking the first set in 35 minutes.

The second set started the same way, as Germany jumped out to a 3-0 lead with two breaks. South Korea hit back to break Petzschner's serve but they could not complete the recovery.

Germany broke early again in the third set and Kohlschreiber served out to complete victory in 1 hour, 24 minutes.

Germany now just needs one point from the two reverse singles matches Sunday to seal a place in the quarterfinals.

Those two matches will see Kohlschreiber meet Lee Hyung-taik before Florian Mayer plays An.

Spain seals deal with doubles win over Peru

LIMA -- Spain secured a straight-sets victory in the doubles on Saturday to take a winning 3-0 lead over Peru and a place in the Davis Cup quarterfinals.

Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco beat Peru's Luis Horna and Ivan Miranda 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 to seal the tie.

Horna, Peru's leading player, took the court after an arm injury kept him out of his opening singles match on Friday. He was replaced by Matias Silva.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.