Sweden in third straight final

Bjorkman and Kulti assured Sweden of the victory beating Javier Sanchez and Julian Alonso 6-2, 6-2, 6-2, deflating Spain’s hopes of reaching their first final in 31 years.

Just as he had done in the quarter-final, Bjorkman raised his game when it counted the most. Coming into the match with Corretja, ranked six places above him at number seven, Bjorkman had been struggling to find his form.But the affable Swede managed to run his Davis Cup singles record to 10 wins in 13 tries with an impressive win yesterday he followed up that performance with today’s triumph, his 14th win in 16 doubles matches.

Australia through

TOWNSVILLE, AUSTRALIA: Former champion Australia found their way back into the WorldGroup after taking an unbeatable 3-0 lead over Uzbekistan in their qualifying tie today.

Australia’s Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde won today’s doubles in straight sets, beating Uzbekistan’s Oleg Ogorodov and Dmitiri Tomashevich 6-3, 7-6, 7-6.

The Woodies’ victory gave Australia an unassailable lead in the best-of-five tie after Patrick Rafter and Jason Stoltenberg had both won their singles matches yesterday.

The result means that Australia, knocked out in this year’s World Group first round by Zimbabwe, will return to the elite group for next year’s competition.

Russia beat Japan

OSAKA: Up-and-coming teenager Marat Safin teamed up with Yevgeny Kafelnikov to take an unbeatable 3-0 lead for Russia in the World Group qualifying tie against Japan today.

Yesterday, Kafelnikov put Russia one-one, beating Goichi Motomura 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 and Safin was leading one set and 3-1 over Japan’s top player Takao Suzuki when rain halted the contest.

Safin never made a mistake to slip away hismatch, winning the postponed singles 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, 6-3. Kafelnikov, the 1996 French Open champion, teamed up with Safin to hammer nails into the Japanese coffin by scoring a 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Suzuki and Motomura.

US struggle

MILWAUKEE: Jan-Michael Gambill, preferred over former world number one Jim Courier, was given a rude baptism in the competition when he was beaten 2-6, 6-0, 6-7 (0-7), 6-7 (4-7) by Andrea Gaudenzi of Italy. American hopes then nosedived when Todd Martin slumped to a 6-7 (0-7), 3-6, 6-7 (10-8) defeat against Davide Sanguinetti.

Other results

At Ramat Hasharon, Israel: France took a 2-0 lead over Israel on victories by Cedric Pioline and Guillaume Raoux.

At Eindhoven, Netherlands: Paul Haarhuis and Jan Siemerink put the Dutch up 2-0 on Ecuador.

At Prague, Czech Republic: Slava Dosedel upset Wayne Ferreira, helping the Czechs to a 2-0 lead over South Africa.

At Buenos Aires, Argentina: Hernan Gumy upset Karol Kucera, leavingthe Argentines tied 1-1 with Slovakia.