Spain tumble to France in Davis Cup quarter-finals

Spain's hopes of a hat-trick of Davis Cup triumphs ended when they fell 3-0 behind to France in Clermont-Ferrand after losing Saturday's doubles rubber.

French duo Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau beat Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez in four sets to give the hosts an unassailable lead in their quarter-final.

Llodra and Benneteau delighted the enthusiastic home crowd with a 6-1 6-2 6-7 7-6 win to earn France a first Davis Cup victory over Spain since 1923 and send captain Guy Forget's team into the semi-finals.

Even without world number one Rafael Nadal, resting his knees after his French Open and Wimbledon triumphs, Spain fielded a powerful team but the writing was on the wall when they lost both of Friday's singles.

Gael Monfils beat David Ferrer in five sets before Llodra saw off Verdasco 6-7 6-4 6-3 7-6.

France will face the winners of the quarter-final between Russia and Argentina which the south Americans were leading 2-1 after Horacio Zeballos and Eduardo Schwank won Saturday's doubles in Moscow against Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Kunitsyn.

Serbia edged 2-1 ahead of Croatia in Split when Janko Tipsarevic and Nenad Zimonjic scored a crucial victory over Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig.

The Czech Republic were in a strong position to beat Chile after taking a 2-0 lead in Coquimbo in Friday's singles.