Argentina leads Sweden 2-1 in Davis Cup

Argentina took a 2-1 lead over Sweden in their Davis Cup first-round series Saturday when David Nalbandian (who was a late replacement for Leonardo Mayer) and Horacio Zeballos defeated Robin Soderling and Robert Lindstedt 6-2, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5) in the doubles.

The Argentines broke twice in the first set to take a 4-0 lead and then proved stronger in the tiebreakers.

On Friday, Soderling had defeated Eduardo Schwank in the opening singles and Leonardo Mayer beat Joachim Johansson to level the tie.

Tomorrow the fourth match of the tie will see Mayer face Soderling and later, in what could be the decisive clash, Nalbandian might appear again, although this has not yet been confirmed by Argentina’s captain ‘Tito’ Vázquez.

In other encounters, India won the doubles against Russia duo to make the tie score 2-1 to Russia ahead of tomorrow’s singles.

The winner of the tie faces either Argentina or Sweden in the next round.

France took an unassailable 3-0 lead ahead of Germany in their World Group first round played in Toulon.

France will face Spain in the last eight if the champions get past Switzerland. They were tied 1-1 after Friday’s opening singles.

Croatia, the 2005 champions, saw off Ecuador 3-0 and will face either Serbia or USA for a ticket to the semi-finals.

Berdych and Stepanek gave the Czech Republic a 3-0 victory over Belgium , in Saturday’s doubles. They will next face the winners of the delayed Chile-Israel encounter in the quarterfinals.