France returning to Davis Cup semifinals

Michael Llodra and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga teamed for a straight-set win Saturday that pushed France into the Davis Cup semifinals over Germany. Llodra and Tsonga dropped serve just once in a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Germans Christopher Kas and Philipp Petzschner. The win, combined with singles points collected Friday by Richard Gasquet and Gael Monfils, locked up the best-of-five quarterfinal series for the French. They will go against either Spain of the United States in the Davis Cup semifinals Sept. 16-18. Spain is up 2-0 on the Americans in their quarterfinal series. Llodra and Tsonga combined for 49 winners against just 25 unforced errors. They won 70 percent of the points on serve. The lone service game loss came in the first set but the French took the tiebreaker. They had one break in each of the other two sets in moving France into the semifinals. France was the runner-up in the Davis Cup last year, losing the finals to Serbia. The French have won nine Davis Cup titles, the most recent coming in 2001. The French and the Germans will have two singles matches Sunday with the schedule calling for Monfils to play Florian Mayer and Gasquet taking on Philipp Kohlschreiber.