Kyle Edmund won his second singles rubber of the weekend to steer Davis Cup champion Great Britain past Serbia Sunday and into a mouthwatering semifinal clash against Argentina. Edmund, ranked at 67 in the world, justified his position as his country's top player in the absence of Wimbledon champion Andy Murray to see off Dusan Lajovic 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) on the back of 39 winners for an unbeatable 3-1 lead. "You want to win for your country. When you know what is at stake — I'm so pleased that I've won," said Edmund. Britain go on to host Argentina in September after the South Americans reached the semifinals with a 3-1 win over Italy in Pesaro. Argentina has won the last three Davis Cup meetings between the two countries in 1981, 1989 and 2008 while Britain's only win was in 1928 in the sleepy seaside town of Torquay. Edmund had defeated Janko Tipsarevic Friday in the opening singles as the host, Davis Cup champions in 2010, paid heavily for not being able to call upon Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki, comfortably their top two players. Lajovic leveled the tie with a win over James Ward before Jamie Murray and Dominic Inglot defeated Nenad Zimonjic and Filip Krajinovic in the doubles. Argentina, which has never won the Davis Cup, saw Federico Delbonis defeat recently-married Fabio Fognini 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 Sunday. Delbonis, the world No. 40, had also pocketed the first point Friday by beating Andreas Seppi, the world 52, before Fognini saw off Juan Monaco in straight sets to level the quarterfinal. Juan Martin Del Potro, back in the Argentina team for the first time in four years, then teamed with Guido Pella to defeat Fognini and Paolo Lorenzi in the doubles. Argentina has now made the semifinals 11 times in the last 15 years. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga sent France into the last-four after beating Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic to hand his team an unassailable 3-1 lead in Trinec. World No. 10 Tsonga beat 50th-ranked Vesely 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-4, 7-5 in three hours and 28 minutes as France won in the Czech Republic for the first time in 90 years. "With the experience I have, I knew that even despite a poor start it's not over, it goes on, the rubber is long," Tsonga told reporters. "But I really had to work hard to win today." In their quest for a first Davis Cup title since 2001, France will now face either the United States or Croatia in the semifinals. On Friday, the Czechs took the lead in the tie as world No. 78 Lukas Rosol stunned Tsonga before Lucas Pouille, ranked 21st, then swept Vesely in straight sets. And in Saturday's doubles rubber, Wimbledon champions Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert beat Radek Stepanek and Rosol in five sets. Croatia kept alive its hopes when Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig won their doubles match in four sets against the United States in Oregon Saturday. Cilic was not expected to play doubles, but was drafted in at the last minute after Croatia lost both singles rubbers Friday to slip to the brink of elimination. And the 2014 US Open singles champion teamed up superbly with Dodig against American doubles specialists the Bryan brothers, Bob and Mike, winning 6-2, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in Portland. "I played probably the best match in my life in doubles, especially at this kind of occasion," Cilic told Tennis Channel. The US leads 2-1 heading into Sunday's reverse singles.
