French, Russians, Dutch Advance

Paul-Henri Mathieu blew three match points before finally outlasting gritty Thomas Johansson, 6-1, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-4, to clinch a 3-2 victory for France over Sweden in the Davis Cup World Group on Sunday at Strasbourg, France.

Sweden tied the match earlier in the day when Joachim Johansson rallied from a set down to beat Sebastien Grosjean, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-1.

France moves on to play Russia in the quarterfinals.

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Australian Open champion Marat Safin defeated Fernando Gonzalez, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4, at Moscow to send Russia into the quarterfinals with a 4-1 victory over Chile.

In the second, meaningless reverse singles match, Nikolay Davydenko downed Paul Capdeville, 6-2, 6-1.

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Sjeng Schalken staged a fifth-set comeback to beat Swiss teenager Stanislas Wawrinka, 1-6, 6-2, 6-4, 2-6, 9-7, to give the Netherlands an unassailable 3-1 lead at Fribourg, Switzerland. The Dutch, who won, 3-2, will travel to Slovakia for the quarterfinals.

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Victor Hanescu beat Vladimir Voltchkov of Belarus, 7-6 (2), 6-4, 7-6 (6), to give Romania a 3-2 victory at Brasov, Romania.

Earlier in the day, top Romanian player Andrei Pavel defeated Max Mirnyi 6-1, 7-6 (0), 4-6, 6-3 for a 2-2 tie.

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Fernando Verdasco beat Kamil Capkovic, 6-2, 6-2, to earn a point for defending champion Spain, which had been eliminated the day before by Slovakia at Bratislava, Slovkia.

Slovakia, which won the best-of-five competition, 4-1, clinched with a victory in doubles on Saturday.

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Agustin Calleri and Guillermo Coria easily won in reverse singles, and Argentina swept the Czech Republic, 5-0, at Buenos Aires to move into the quarterfinals against Australia.

Calleri defeated Tomas Zib, 6-2, 6-4, and Coria beat Jan Hernych, 6-3, 6-0.

Argentina had clinched its victory Saturday after winning in doubles.

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Australia completed a 5-0 whitewash of Austria when Todd Woodbridge beat Marco Mirnegg, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, and Chris Guccione defeated Alexander Peya, 6-3, 6-4, at Sydney.