Zizou Bergs leads Belgium past France into Davis Cup semifinals

BOLOGNA, Italy (AP) – Zizou Bergs beat Arthur Rinderknech 6-3, 7-6 (4) to send Belgium into the Davis Cup semifinals with a 2-0 victory over 10-time champion France on Tuesday.

Belgium had lost its last four meetings with France, including in the 2017 final. It will face either No. 1 Italy or Austria on Friday.

The last two quarterfinals will be held Thursday – No. 2 Germany will face Argentina, and Spain will take on the No. 4-seeded Czech Republic.

Bergs was in control throughout against the top French player and sealed the match with a superb forehand winner down the line.

Earlier, Raphael Collignon rallied past Corentin Moutet 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 to give Belgium a 1-0 lead. Ties are played as a best-of-three matches, so the doubles was not played.

Both nations were back at this stage of the team competition since it was revamped in 2019. The Davis Cup Final 8 in Bologna is the sixth edition of the event to have the champion decided at a neutral site.

Moutet played solid tennis until the 12th game of the second set when he hit two double faults and fluffed an easy point at the net after trying a between-the-legs shot, dropping his serve as Collignon forced a decider.

A similar scenario unfolded in the third set as Collignon made the decisive break in the final game.

“It was a crazy match,” Collignon said. “I think I was maybe a bit lucky that he chose to do this tweener at 6-5 because it was tough for me. I was not playing so good. He was dominating the match.”

Spain is without top-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, who withdrew earlier Tuesday because of a hamstring injury.