Unlikely Germans Into Final at World Team Cup

The under-manned German squad, which lost former No. 2 Tommy Haas to allergies at the beginning of the week, nonetheless advanced to the final Thursday in a bid to successfully defend their title at the ATP World Team Cup, defeating the Czech Republic in a tiebreak in the final match.

German substitute Philipp Kohlschreiber put his team up 1-0 with a three-set win over Robin Vik before Tomas Berdych evened the tie, coming from a set down to defeat Nicolas Kiefer.

In the deciding doubles, German doubles specialists Michael Kohlmann and Alexander Waske beat Berdych and Leos Friedl 6-4, 6-7(2), 10-5.

In the final Germany will face either Croatia or Chile who meet on Friday.

Argentine defeated Italy 2-1 Thursday when Jose Acasuso beat Davide Sanguinetti 6-2, 6-0 before Italian Filippo Volandri shocked David Nalbandian 6-4, 7-5 to even things at 1-1. The heavy lifting was left up to Acasuso and Sebastien Prieto, who clinched in the doubles with a 7-6(3), 6-1 win over Sanguinetti/Volandri.

"I am very happy with my performance here in this event because I won all my three matches, proving my good level," said the in-form Acasuso. "I am now looking forward optimistically to the French Open. However, we wanted to win the team title here, which unfortunately we failed to achieve."

On Friday Chile and Croatia square off for a spot in the final, with Fernando Gonzalez vs. Ivan Ljubicic and Nicolas Massu vs. Mario Ancic, with both squads bringing out their full Davis Cup complements, while the U.S. puts on the flippers against Spain with Bob Bryan vs. Fernando Verdasco, and Robby Ginepri vs. David Ferrer.