Germany join Spain, Italy and Belgium in Davis Cup last four

Exhausted Germany will meet Spain in Saturday's second Davis Cup semi-final after extremely tight last-eight clashes on Thursday.

Germany beat Argentina 2-1 after a decisive and dramatic doubles match went to the wire. Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz overcame Andres Molteni and Horacio Zeballos 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (12-10) in a topsy-turvy encounter that lasted well past 1 am (0000 GMT) in Bologna.

Germany star Alexander Zverev had earlier swatted aside Francisco
Cerundolo 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) in 1 hour 35 minutes to make it 1-1.

"I was extremely happy with the win," Zverev said.

In the opening singles rubber, Tomas Martin Etcheverry had given Argentina the lead after a 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (9-7) win over Jan-Lennard Struff. The German raced into a 2-0 lead but let Etcheverry back in and the world number 60 dominated the tie-break.

The second set went with serve before world number 84 Struff looked poised to take the tie-break, only for Etcheverry to snatch it as both players sent down 23 aces each across the match.

Spain earlier reached the semi-finals for the first time since 2019 after their own 2-1 comeback win over the Czech Republic, also on the Bologna hardcourt.

Jakub Mensik beat Pablo Carreno Busta 7-5, 6-4 in an early morning opener. Jaume Munar hit back for Spain to defeat Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 6-4 and the team shorn of injured Carlos Alcaraz then prevailed in the doubles.

Marcel Granollers and Pedro Martinez edged Mensik and Tomas Machac 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (10-8) in a gripping finale.

Singles victor Munar said: “I was pretty confident in my tennis. It doesn't matter who I have in front of me. I've been playing really good indoors this year.”

Hosts Italy, who are going for a three-peat of titles, beat Austria 2-0 on Wednesday and on Friday meet Belgium in the first semi-final.

The Belgians saw off France 2-0 at the start of the week.