Heraldo de Madrid - Germany, Argentina close in on Davis Cup finals

In the Dutch city of Groningen, Argentina's Tomas Martin Etcheverry beat Jesper De Jong 6-4, 6-4 and Francisco Cerundolo dispatched Botic Van De Zandschulp 7-6 (7/4), 6-1.

"It's tough to swallow," said De Jong as the hosts need to win Saturday's doubles to stay in the competition.

"It was an amazing atmosphere which I tried to use. I'm gutted I didn't get the win for them."

In Tokyo, Germany lead Japan thanks to Jan-Lennard Struff and Yannick Hanfmann.

Struff battled past Yoshihito Nishioka 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4 with Hanfmann seeing off Shintaro Mochizuki 6-3, 6-3.

Davis Cup novice Corentin Moutet got France off the mark on indoor clay in Croatia, against Dino Prizmic 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 in Osijek.

The 26-year-old Frenchman, who is enjoying the best season of his career, had to work hard against the 20-year-old Prizmic, who moved up from 400th to 119th in the ATP rankings this year, in 3hrs 17min.

Arthur Rinderknech will try to emulate his teammate later Friday against Marin Cilic.

In Debrecen, Jurij Rodionov gave Austria their first point against Hungary beat Fabian Marozsan 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 7-5.

Australia bid to reach the Davis Cup finals for a fourth straight year against Belgium with the United States hosting the Czech Republic and Denmark playing Spain in Marbella.

The Davis Cup finals will be hosted by defending champions Italy in November, with the seven teams that win this weekend's qualifiers joining them.

E.Pineda--HdM