Slovakia dumped out a Serbia facet lacking 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic, successful all 4 matches on the indoor clay in Kraljevo to achieve the group stage of the brand new format for the primary time.
That they had misplaced their earlier 4 qualifiers, however Lukas Klein and Igor Zelenay gave them an unassailable lead with victory within the doubles as Slovakia went on to seal a well-known 4-0 win towards the 2010 winners.
Brazil additionally reached the group phases for the primary time with a 3-1 victory over Sweden, their third win of this yr’s match after beating China and Denmark in World Group I to achieve the qualifiers.
The United States gained via with a 4-0 victory over Ukraine in a tie that was performed on impartial floor in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram claimed the decisive level of their doubles match towards Illya Beloborodko and Oleksii Krutykh as 32-time winners USA bid for a primary Davis Cup title since 2007.
Solely two ties went the space as Germany beat Hungary 3-2 and the Netherlands overcame Switzerland by the identical rating.
The Dutch facet gained the ultimate two singles matches to return from 2-1 down towards Switzerland. Eight of the 11 units contested went to tie-break, with Botic van de Zandschulp clinching the decisive rubber 5-7 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 towards Marc Andrea Huesler in entrance of a partisan residence crowd.
Germany’s world quantity 24 Jan-Lennard Struff sealed their victory within the ultimate singles match in Hungary, successful 6-3 6-2 towards Mate Valkusz, who’s ranked outdoors the world’s high 200.
Elsewhere, there have been 4-0 wins for France in Chinese language Taipei and Czech Republic at residence to Israel, whereas Canada overcame South Korea 3-1 in Montreal.
Finland made the group phases for the second yr operating with a 3-1 victory at residence to Portugal.
And Belgium’s Zizou Bergs adopted up his shock opening singles victory over Croatia’s former world quantity three Marin Cilic to seal an general 3-1 victory with a decisive second singles triumph in Varazdin, beating residence hope Duje Ajdukovic 6-1 7-5.
Within the ultimate two qualifiers nonetheless to be concluded, Kazakhstan have fought again to degree 2-2 in Argentina and power a deciding rubber, whereas Chile and Peru are degree at 1-1.