Spain, Argentina and Czech Republic all secured their place in the second round of the Davis Cup after the second day of play.
The Spaniards beat the team of Kazakhstan 5-0 as Juan Carlos Ferrero defeated Mikhail Kukushkin in a tough five set match 6-1 4-6 7-6 (2) 4-6 6-4 on the spanish clay courts in Oviedo. This was followed with a Nicolas Almagro win over Andrey Golubev with a scoreline 6-3 4-6 6-1 6-1.
It was all quickly over as Marcel Granollersand Marc Lopez overpowered Evgeny Korolev and Yuriy Schukin in straight sets 6-2 6-3 6-1 and secured Spain the third and match winning point.
On the last day, Nicolas Almagro then sweeped past Evgeny Korolev 6-3 6-4, while Marcel Granollers beat Andrey Golubev 6-3 6-7 (2) 6-3.
The Czechs also had the advantage playing in front of the home crowd in Ostrava as they eliminated Italy 4-1.
First Radek Stepanek had to fight hard against Andreas Seppi, but he came out victorious at the end, winning 4-6 6-4 6-3 3-6 6-3.
Tomas Berdych then gave the Czechs a comfortable 2-0 lead, defeating Simone Bolelli 6-3 4-6 7-5 6-2. Berdych has had a good start to this season, having just won the title in Montpellier last week.
There was little doubt that the Czech team will finish the job and move into the third round. They have not dissapointed their crowd as Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek stormed to a 6-3 6-4 6-2 victory over Daniele Bracciali and Potito Starace.
The last two points were evenly split as Lukas Rosol defeated Andreas Seppi 4-6 6-3 6-4 and Frantisek Cermak lost to Simone Bolelli 4-6 4-6.
Argentina made their way into the next round as they overcame Germany 4-1.
In a tie played at the indoor clay courts in Bamberg, Juan Monaco got off to a very good start for the Argentina team, beating Philipp Petzschner 6-3 6-3 6-3.
Former Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian quickly got back on his feet and after losing the first set against Florian Mayer 2-6 he outclassed the German in the next three sets 6-1 6-0 7-6 (5).
The doubles match was the German´s last chance to come back, but David Nalbandian and Eduardo Schwank came back from two sets down to defeat Tommy Haas and Philipp Petzschner 3-6 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-4.
Finally, Juan Ignacio Chela won his match against Florian Mayer 7-5 7-5 and Cedrik-Marcel Stebe secured Germany their only point as he beat Eduardo Schwank 7-6 (1) 7-5.
To see all our predictions for upcoming matches, based on our machine learning model analysing results since 1960, see our tennis predictions page here.
