By Chris Oddo | Friday April 7, 2017
France and Belgium joined Serbia and Australia in the Davis Cup driver's seat on Friday.
Photo: AFP
All four World Group quarterfinals were 2-0 sweeps on Friday, and France and Belgium took the driver’s seat in their respective Davis Cup World Group ties.
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Yannick Noah’s surprise decision to nominate Jeremy Chardy over Gilles Simon paid big dividends on Day 1 as Chardy trounced Dan Evans to give Les Bleus a 2-0 lead over Great Britain. Earlier in the day Lucas Pouille staked the French to a 1-0 lead by defeating Kyle Edmund in straight sets.
Edmund had a 5-2 lead in the second-set breaker but Pouille stormed back to take six of the final seven points. In the final set he broke for 4-2 and won eight of his last nine service points to lock up the 7-5, 7-6(6), 6-3 win.
Chardy raced out to a 5-0 lead in the first set over Evans, who had not played on clay in three years. Chardy was not broken in the final two sets and he broke for 4-2 in the second set and 1-0 in the third set to pull away from Evans and win 6-2, 6-2, 6-3.
In Charleroi Steve Darcis continued his electric Davis Cup form by defeating Paolo Lorenzi, 6-7(3), 6-1, 6-1, 7-6(4), to improve to 3-0 in singles rubbers this season. Darcis, who defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber and Alexander Zverev in the first round of World Group action, hit 31 winners to just 16 for Lorenzi.
David Goffin put Belgium within a win of its second Davis Cup semifinal since 1999 with a 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 win over Andreas Seppi. Belgium reached the final in 2015 before falling to Great Britain at home.
They will face the Australia vs. U.S.A. winner in the semifinals if they prevail.