France, Czechs, Croatia into quarter-finals

Croatia saw off Ecuador 3-0 and will face either bitter rivals Serbia or 32-time champions USA for a place in the semi-finals.

France set-up a potential Davis Cup quarter-final blockbuster against defending champions Spain after extending their 72-year stranglehold over Germany on Saturday.

France cruised past Germany in their World Group first round tie when Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber and Christopher Kas 6-1, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in Toulon.

France will face Spain in the last eight if the champions get past Switzerland in Logrono. They were tied 1-1 after Friday's opening singles.

"The attitude was very good and the result was ideal," said France skipper Guy Forget. "We know what awaits us in the next round. It will be another high level."

Croatia, the 2005 champions, saw off Ecuador 3-0 and will face either bitter rivals Serbia or 32-time champions USA for a place in the semi-finals.

Marin Cilic and Ivo Karlovic coasted to a 7-6 (7/3), 6-3, 7-5 win over Nicolas Lapentti and Giovanni Lapentti in Saturday’s doubles to give Croatia an unassailable 3-0 lead.

Having won their respective singles rubbers against the Lapentti brothers on Friday, Cilic and Karlovic teamed up to devastating effect in front of 3,000 fans in the Varazdin Sports Arena.

"It wasn’t one-way traffic in the doubles, it was as tough as we expected it to be and we are overjoyed to have secured a berth in the last eight," said Cilic.

Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek gave the Czech Republic a 3-0 victory over Belgium in Bree, beating Steve Darcis and Olivier Rochus 7-6 (7/0), 6-0, 6-3 in Saturday's doubles rubber.

Berdych and Stepanek, who have now won six of their seven Davis Cup doubles rubbers, dropped serve only once, breaking their opponents five times in a comfortable victory in just under two hours.

The Czechs, runners-up in 2009, will face the winners of the delayed Chile-Israel encounter in the quarterfinals, where they would be away to Chile or home to Israel.

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi kept India's hopes of advancing alive beating Igor Kunitsyn and Teimuraz Gabashvili in straight sets in Moscow.

The Indian doubles specialists, who won 14 Grand Slam titles during their career, outclassed the Russian duo 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 to make the tie score 2-1 to Russia ahead of Sunday's reverse singles.

"We play well together and we both enjoy playing doubles," Bhupathi said. "Today we played very well."

Paes said: "It wasn't tough to win as they are both singles specialists and their tactics are definitely not the best possible for the doubles match.

"They were spending too much time on the base line, while we played aggressive tennis and, I believe, won the match deservedly."

The winner of the tie faces either Sweden or Argentina in the last eight.