Defending Champ US Advances at Davis Cup
ERIC WILLEMSEN
The Associated Press
VIENNA, Austria - The defending champion United States advanced to the Davis Cup quarterfinals behind a commanding doubles victory by twins Bob and Mike Bryan on Saturday over Austria's Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer.
The Bryans won 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 to give the Americans an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the best-of-five, first-round series. The U.S. became the first nation to reach the quarters and will next play Romania or France on April 11-13.
Andy Roddick and James Blake won opening singles matches Friday against Melzer and Stefan Koubek. The now meaningless reverse singles are Sunday.
The Bryans were never in trouble, winning 12 of the first 14 points for a 3-0 lead. Bob Bryan double-faulted at 3-1 but Knowle put a volley wide on the only break point the Austrians got in the match.
Melzer dropped serve again at 4-1 and Mike Bryan held to love to take the first set. An early break of Melzer's serve was enough for the Bryans to win the second set.
The Americans raced ahead 4-0 in the third set and wrapped up the victory on their first match point on Mike Bryan's serve.
In other first-round play in the World Group, three countries held 2-1 leads: Russia (over Serbia), Israel (over Sweden) and Germany (over South Korea). Leading 2-0 were: France (over Romania) Argentina (over Britain), Spain (over Peru) and the Czech Republic (over Belgium).
