Britain Beat Czechs To Reach Quarter-finals, Germany, Croatia Through

Paris, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Nov, 2021 ) :Britain booked their place in the Davis Cup quarter-finals with a come-from-behind victory over the Czech Republic on Sunday, while Germany, Kazakhstan and Croatia also reached the last eight.

Dan Evans' surprise 6-2, 7-5 loss to world number 143 Tomas Machac left Britain needing to fight back to secure a second straight win and take top spot in Group C.

But Cameron Norrie overcame a second-set blip to see off Jiri Lehecka 6-1, 2-6, 6-1, before Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski teamed up to beat Machac and Jiri Vesely 6-4, 6-2 in Innsbruck.

"It's great. Today was tough. A lot of people look at the rankings but it's never like that," British captain Leon Smith, whose side will next play Germany on Tuesday, told the BBC.

"We've been underdogs and managed to get wins. The Czech team played well -- very young team.

Machac turned into a top 20 player overnight!" The ties in Austria are being played behind closed doors due to new coronavirus restrictions in the country.

France, after winning against the Czechs and losing to Britain, are out of the tournament.

Germany backed up their shock victory over Novak Djokovic's Serbia by fighting back to edge out hosts Austria and go through as Group F winners.

Serbia had to settle for second place and must now wait to see if they progress as one of the two best runners-up.

Dominik Koepfer lost 6-1, 7-5 to Jurij Rodionov to put the Germans in trouble, but Jan-Lennard Struff levelled the tie by cruising past Dennis Novak 7-5, 6-4.

Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz completed the job in the doubles, as they did against Djokovic and Serbia on Saturday, winning 6-3, 6-4 against Oliver Marach and Philipp Oswald.