Dusseldorf, Germany – Reigning champion Germany moved to 1-0 at the World Team Cup tennis event on Monday.
The Czech Republic and Serbia also secured points on Day 2 of the tournament, which features two groups of four nations in round-robin play and serves as a final tuneup for the French Open, which will start Sunday in Paris.
The Germans clinched their point when Florian Mayer defeated Russia's Igor Andreev 6-2, 7-6 (9-7) to give the hosts an insurmountable 2-0 lead in the best-of-three battle. Mayer and Christopher Kas paired to cap Germany's 3-0 Blue Group victory over Russia with a 6-4, 3-6, 10-8 win against a duo of Igor Kunitsyn and Dimitry Tursunov.
Germany won a record-breaking fifth title with victory over defending champion Argentina last year on the red clay at Rochusclub.
The Czechs beat Japan 2-1, thanks to a doubles victory by Radek Stepanek and Frantisek Cermak, who straight-setted a Japanese tandem of Tatsuma Ito and Go Soeda 6-2, 7-6 (7-4). The Czech Republic tied the matchup at 1-all when recent Madrid Masters runner-up Tomas Berdych got past Soeda in 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 fashion in the Red Group.
Serbia clinched a Blue Group victory against Croatia when Janko Tipsarevic gave the Serbs an unassailable 2-0 lead with a 6-0, 6-0 double-bagel pasting of Lovro Zovko. Team Serbia settled for a 2-1 win after a Croatian doubles tandem of Zovko and Ivan Dodig edged out a Serbian pairing of Viktor Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4).
Argentina capped off an easy 3-0 Red Group victory against the United States with a 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 doubles win by Carlos Berlocq and Juan Ignacio Chela over an American duo of James Blake and Ryan Harrison. The Argentines notched a pair of singles victories on Sunday.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.