By ,
Published January 08, 2015
Nancy, France (SportsNetwork.com) - Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils won reverse singles matches Sunday to complete France's stirring rally past Germany in the Davis Cup quarterfinals.
The heavily favored French faced an 0-2 deficit after Friday's opening singles matches, as Tobias Kamke beat Julien Benneteau and Peter Gojowczyk stunned Tsonga in a five-set thriller.
However, Benneteau atoned on Saturday when he teamed with Michael Llodra for a doubles victory to keep the French alive, also giving Tsonga his chance for redemption.
He took it and simply dominated Kamke on Sunday to draw the French even.
Tsonga ripped 10 aces and 11 service winners among his 45 total winners. Kamke had no aces, failed to convert any of his three break-point opportunities and managed only 19 total winners.
French rookie captain Arnaud Clement then opted for Monfils instead of Benneteau in the deciding rubber and the move paid off handsomely.
Monfils won the first five games of the match and wrapped up the first set in a mere 24 minutes. He then won all seven points in the second-set tiebreaker and rebounded after dropping serve for the first time early in the third with three more breaks of serve to close out the match and France's comeback.
France successfully rallied from an 0-2 deficit for the fourth time in its long Davis Cup history and will play in the semifinals for the third time in the last five years.
The Czech Republic will visit the French in September. The two-time reigning Davis Cup champs easily dispatched Japan in a 5-0 sweep this weekend.
Germany competed this weekend without any of its top six players, including the absences of Philipp Kohlschreiber, Florian Mayer and Tommy Haas. Their top performer was Kamke, ranked 96th in the world.
The French have won seven straight Davis Cup ties against Germany and improved to 8-2 all-time against their European rivals, including a win in their last meeting in a quarterfinal in Stuttgart in 2011. Germany hasn't beaten France since 1938.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/tsonga-monfils-rally-france-past-germany-in-davis-cup