In a late-night epic, Australia got the better of Greece in a tense doubles rubber on Wednesday to keep its ATP Cup hopes alive.
Before an atmospheric crowd at Rod Laver Arena, the two nations split the singles matches before John Peers and Luke Saville delivered the hosts a nail-biting 2-1 victory.
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Earlier on Wednesday, Italy and Russia sealed semifinal spots, while Germany got off to a winning start against Canada.
Green-and-gold still in the hunt
Australia remains a mathematical chance of leading the Group B table to progress to the semifinals, but will be forced to rely on results unfolding in its favour during Thursday’s Spain-Greece tie.
John Millman got Australia off to a perfect with a comfortable 6-2 6-3 victory over Michail Pervolarakis. Yet Stefanos Tsitsipas again proved too powerful and consistent for Alex de Minaur, beating the Aussie for the fourth straight time – and fifth time in six career meetings – despite De Minaur holding two set points in the 10th same of a high-quality second set.
“I managed to stay calm and resilient when I had to and took my chances at the very end of the second set, which was very important,” the world No.6 said.
A live doubles rubber was required to determine the outcome, with Peers and Saville combining to strike 33 winners to Tsitsipas and Pervolarakis’ 19 and ultimately winning 6-3 4-6 [10-5].
“Aussies never say day, so it’s great fun to still give ourselves a chance (for a semifinal spot),” Peers said.
Russian stars crush Japan
Top-10 stars Daniil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev continue to prove a dynamic ATP Cup duo, with both scoring straight-sets wins on Wednesday night at John Cain Arena.
Relentless Rublev, the world No.8, gave Russia a 1-0 lead thanks to a 6-1 6-3 win over Yoshihito Nishioka, before fourth-ranked Medvedev dismantled Kei Nishikori 6-2 6-4.
Medvedev’s win over the former world No.4 was his 12th in a row, while Rublev has won 23 of his past 27 matches. Neither have dropped a set in singles during Russia’s two victories at the ATP Cup.
Thanks to that win over Japan, and Argentina a day earlier, Russia topped Group D to advance to the semifinals, where either Spain, Greece or Australia awaits.
“Is true we are really happy, happy with our performance. I think Daniil as well, he beat two great players, one of them top 10, one of them is legend,” Rublev said. “And me, as well, I played two good matches, I showed good levels. We'll see what's gonna happen.”
Italy beats France, into semifinals
During the John Cain Arena day session, Italy beat France 2-1 after singles stars Fabio Fognini and Matteo Berrettini sealed the tie prior to the doubles match.
Fognini ousted Benoit Paire in straight sets to give the Italians an early lead, before Berrettini overcame Gael Monfils in a battle between No.1 singles players.
Berrettini, who stunned Dominic Thiem on Tuesday, continued to fire early in 2021, recovering from 1-4, 0-30 to win 11 of the final 13 games – and also winning this brilliant exchange.
"I said, 'you can always come back'. I felt that I wasn't my best tennis, so I felt that I could improve my level,” said Berrettini, who also beat Monfils in a 2019 US Open quarterfinal epic. "I kept going, I thought about my weapons, and that's I guess how I won the match.
"The season is long, so I have to keep working a lot. But I'm really glad for the start of the year.”
France, represented by Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin, beat Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori in the doubles rubber but could not stop Italy scoring its second victory in as many days to top Group C and seal a semifinal berth.
Germany defeats Canada, Serbia next
The Germans will look to follow Italy into the final four when they take on Serbia on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Alexander Zverev helped his team to an unassailable 2-0 lead after a dramatic 6-7(5) 6-3 7-6(4) win over Denis Shapovalov in a match lasting almost three hours.
Trailing 3-1 in the final tiebreak, Zverev won the next four points and later delivered a pair of aces to complete a cathartic victory.
“Last year I played horrible at the ATP Cup, I lost all three matches. And I wanted to come out and do it better this year. And I'm happy to do that,” said the world No.7.
"This is the first match after a long time for me; Denis played yesterday already. You need practice, you need match play. I'm just happy to get the win in the end. And that's all the mattered.
“We beat Canada; we got Serbia tomorrow. And we'll see how that goes.”
In the first match of the tie at Rod Laver Arena, Jan-Lennard Struff held Milos Raonic at bay in two tiebreaks to give Germany an early 1-0 lead.
With Canada losing both its ties and falling to the bottom of Group A, Germany and Serbia – a tie headlined by a Zverev-Novak Djokovic clash – will play for a shot at Italy in the semis.