TENNIS ROUNDUP : India Beats France in Davis Cup

Ramesh Krishnan needed less than 13 minutes to complete his victory Monday and finish India’s 3-2 upset of France in the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup in Frejus, France.

The victory earned India a semifinal berth against Australia, a 3-2 winner over Italy. India will play host to the semifinal Sept. 24-26. Germany plays at Sweden in the other semifinal.

Krishnan completed the five-set victory over Rodolphe Gilbert in two games after the match had been suspended because of darkness Sunday night with the score tied, 4-4, in the final set. Krishnan won, 2-6, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Krishnan provided the last point with his come-from-behind victory over Gilbert after India’s Leander Paes beat Arnaud Boetsch to tie the match, 2-2. “When we came here we didn’t realize that we would be in this position,” Krishnan said. “France was a much stronger team, but it was an excellent opportunity for us.”

Gilbert was leading by a break at 4-2 in the fifth set, only to have Krishnan tie the match, 4-4, before play was halted by darkness.

Monday, Krishnan served and held off two break points to lead, 5-4. He then took advantage of a poor service game by Gilbert to close out the match.

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Jana Novotna, playing her first match since her loss to Steffi Graf in the Wimbledon final, blew a big lead before recovering to lead the Czech and Slovak Republics to a first-round Federation Cup victory in Frankfurt, Germany.

Novotna, ranked eighth in the world, beat South Africa’s Amanda Coetzer, 6-1, 6-4, in a match interrupted by a thunderstorm.

In other matches, sixth-seeded France scored a 2-1 victory over Canada when Nathalie Tauziat defeated Patricia Hy, 6-4, 6-1, and then teamed with Julie Halard to beat Hy and Jill Hetherington, 7-5, 7-6 (7-1), in doubles.

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Aaron Krickstein withstood two rain delays to defeat 12th-seeded Brett Steven, 6-4, 6-2, in the opening round of the $625,000 Newsweek Classic in Washington.

In the night’s other singles match, Australia’s Sandon Stolle ousted No. 10-seeded Christian Bergstrom of Sweden, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. In afternoon matches, No. 11-seeded Richey Reneberg beat Australia’s Neil Borwick, 6-1, 7-6 (7-2); No. 15 Jakob Hlasek of Switzerland beat Germany’s Markus Zoecke, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2, and No. 16 Jamie Morgan of Australia, stopped Luis Herrera of Mexico, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2.