No. 17-ranked Cristian Garin was crushed in 50 minutes and won only one game to seal seeded Chile’s upset 3-1 loss to Slovakia in Bratislava in the Davis Cup World Group on Saturday.
Norbert Gombos, ranked nearly 100 spots lower, also knocked off Nicolas Jarry on Friday on the indoor hard-court to help advance Slovakia to the Qualifiers for a third consecutive time.
Along with No. 5-seeded Chile, No. 6 India and No. 7 Uzbekistan were also beaten in Europe.
India, already 2-0 down to Finland in Espoo, was bundled out after the doubles when former world doubles No. 1 Henri Kontinen and Harri Heliovaara beat Rohan Bopanna and Ramkumar Ramanathan 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2).
Norway hit a bump while leading Uzbekistan 2-0 in Oslo when it lost the doubles. But 10th-ranked Casper Ruud clinched the tie in the first reverse singles by beating 567th-ranked Sanjay Fayziev comfortably and advancing Norway to its highest Davis Cup level.
Also, South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon clinched a 3-1 win over New Zealand on grass at the Hall of Fame in Rhode Island.
In ties that started on Saturday, Belarus’ faith in a youthful lineup against No. 2-seeded Argentina in Buenos Aires paid off when 18-year-old Daniil Ostapenkov, in his first competitive Davis Cup match, upset 15th-ranked Diego Schwartzman 6-4, 6-3. Argentina squared the opening singles after Guido Pella beat 16-year-old Erik Arutiunian.
Joao Sousa equaled Joao Cunha-Silva’s all-time Portugal record of 37 Davis Cup match wins when he defeated Filip Cristian Jianu on his 20th birthday, but Romania won the second singles through Marius Copil at Cluj-Napoca in the teams’ first meeting in 26 years.
The Netherlands was leading Uruguay 2-0 in Montevideo without having to meet Pablo Cuevas, and Brazil led Lebanon 2-0 in Jounieh.
Only the top eight highest-ranked of the 12 winning countries will participate in the 2022 Qualifiers to try and make the 16-team Finals. The other four will play World Group I elimination matches in November, with the two winners then advancing to the 2022 Qualifiers.
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