Kazakhstan rallies to beat Italy, advances to Davis Cup quarters

Kazakhstan defeated Italy 32 in their Davis Cup World Group tie in Astana on Sunday, advancing to the quarterfinals of tennis’ premier international team competition for the third straight year.

Italy finished Saturday’s session up 21 over the Kazakh team, which rallied and pulled off the win in the reverse singles.

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev looked on as first Mikhail Kukushkin rolled over Italy’s Andreas Seppi 76 (86), 60, 64 to even things up at 22, then Aleksandr Nedovyesov grinded out a 76 (75), 36, 46, 63, 75 win over Fabio Fognini in a match that lasted three hours and 40 minutes.

“I’m very happy to have won this match because I knew that I was going up against Italy’s best player,” Nedovyesov said.

Kukushkin’s win over Seppi was the key to Kazakhstan’s electrifying comeback in the Davis Cup tie.

“I’m really happy to win, first, because I did it in three sets and, second, because I won at home. My opponent today, Andreas Seppi, had chances to win, but I managed to take the first set and that let me dominate the match. The support of the fans and the public was very important,” Kukushkin said.

The turning point for Kazakhstan was the decision to have Nedovyesov play for Andrey Golubev, who had competed in singles and doubles the first two days, losing both matches.

“Yesterday, we decided who on the team should take the court today in the fifth and last match. And we decided that Andrey Golubev should be replaced by Nedovyesov. Believe me, it’s hard, physically and mentally, to play for three days. So that’s why we decided to replace him for the fifth match,” Kukushkin said.

Kazakhstan will be on the road to play Australia in the quarterfinals July 1719.

Australia advanced to the quarters by beating the Czech Republic 31 in Ostrava.