Argentina 3rd in Davis Cup rankings

PanARMENIAN.Net - Defending champion the Czech Republic and the U.S. won in the opening round of tennis’s Davis Cup, while 2012 runner-up Spain was ousted by Canada, Bloomberg reported.

Tomas Berdych beat Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5) in Geneva to give the Czechs an unassailable 3-1 lead over Switzerland in the best-of five contest. The U.S. beat Brazil 3-2 as Sam Querrey came back from a set down to beat Thiago Alves 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) in Jacksonville.

Canada advanced past the opening round for the first time with a 3-2 win over Spain, which was without its top four singles players -- David Ferrer, Rafael Nadal, Nicolas Almagro and Fernando Verdasco. Milos Raonic won his second singles match of the weekend, beating Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 in Vancouver as Canada advanced to a home quarterfinal against Italy on April 5-7.

Italy was a 3-2 victor over Croatia, while Kazakhstan beat Austria 3-1 in first-round matchups at the top team event in men’s tennis.

Serbia, France and Argentina secured quarterfinal spots by taking unassailable leads against Belgium, Israel and Germany, respectively.