Cameron Norrie defeated Olaf Pieczkowski of Poland 6-4, 6-4 to secure Great Britain’s place in next year’s Davis Cup qualifiers. Norrie’s assured victory over the world No 484 established an unassailable 3-1 lead for Great Britain after they were forced to recover from the setback of starting the day with an unexpected defeat.
Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool, the Wimbledon doubles champions, were upset 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8) by Karol Drzewiecki and Jan Zielinski to present Norrie with the task of overcoming Pieczkowski to avoid a decider on the final day.
Victory in the best-of-five Group One tie means Great Britain, who were missing Jack Draper because of injury, go into February’s first round.
“The most important thing is that we got the job done,” said Great Britain’s captain, Leon Smith. “We did a very professional job. It was good to get Arthur Fery his debut and it was a winning one, which is a great experience for him. Then you have Cam Norrie in your team, who is so rich in experience. We didn’t drop a set in the singles, which shows the respect we gave the opposition.
“We can look forward now to the draw for next year. I sense there’s an appetite for the players to play, which is really good, so hopefully we can go with a strong team and try to go as far as we can.”
Germany reached the last eight with a 4-0 rout of Japan, France secured a convincing win over Croatia and Argentina qualified after knocking out last year’s finalists, the Netherlands. Austria qualified with a 3-2 win over Hungary, while Belgium and Denmark took commanding 2-0 leads over Australia and Spain.
After Germany took a 2-0 lead on Friday in Tokyo, their victory was completed when Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz saved three set points in the second set to beat Yosuke Watanuki and Takeru Yuzuki 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the doubles. Justin Engel then beat Rei Sakamoto 6-3, 6-7 (2), 10-7.
Germany, last year’s semi-finalists, were the first team through the qualifiers, joining the hosts, Italy, in the culminating round set for November in Bologna.
Germany’s captain, Michael Kohlmann, said: “Right now, the locker room is dancing and singing. We’re looking forward to Bologna.”
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Argentina qualified when Andrés Molteni and Horacio Zeballos beat the Dutch duo of Sander Arends and Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3, 7-5 to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in Groningen.
Hungary, who had lost both their matches to Austria on Friday, fought back with back-to-back wins in Debrecen. Fabian Marozsan and Zsombor Piros edged the Austrian pair of Alexander Erler and Lucas Miedler 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2) before Piros beat Lukas Neumayer in a singles match to bring Hungary level at 2-2. Austria won the tie in the fifth match, with Jurij Rodionov earning a dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Marton Fucsovics.
France secured their place in the final eight as Corentin Moutet beat Marin Cilic, securing a 3-1 victory over Croatia in Osijek.
Last year’s quarter-finalists Spain are in danger of elimination as Denmark took a 2-0 lead in Marbella, with the world No 11, Holger Rune, beating Pablo Carreño Busta and Elmer Mller defeating Jaume Munar.
