Davis Cup: Belgium granted controversial win, France, Spain also through

 Belgium claimed a bizarre victory over Chile in the Davis Cup on Sun­day, while France and Spain also came through the first qualifying round.

Chile and Belgium were tied af­ter Saturday’s singles rubbers, and Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen’s doubles win over Tomas Barrios Vera and Nicolas Jarry put the Belgians 2-1 up.

In the next singles match, Chile’s Cristian Garin and Zizou Bergs split the opening two sets to take the contest into a decider, which ended in unusual and con­troversial circumstances.

With the final set deadlocked at 5-5, Bergs broke serve and as he celebrated gaining the advantage, he bumped into Garin at the net while changing ends and bundled the Chilean to the ground.

Garin received medical atten­tion but after being cleared fit to continue, he failed to return to the court and Chile received three consecutive time violations result­ing in a game penalty, giving Berg a 6-3 4-6 7-5 win. That handed Belgium an unbeatable 3-1 lead.

The French held a 2-0 lead over Brazil following Saturday’s singles action, and after losing the opening set, Benjamin Bonzi and Pierre-Hughes Herbert overcame Rafael Matos and Marcelo Melo 4-6 6-3 6-4 to seal the tie.

France, who won the last of their 10 Davis Cup titles in 2017, will face Croatia, who beat them to the trophy in 2018, in the sec­ond round.

Spain also came into Sunday’s doubles tie with a 2-0 lead over Switzerland, and childhood friends Pedro Martinez and Jaume Munar’s 6-4 7-5 win over Marc-Andrea Huesler and Dom­inic Strickler gave the Spanish an unassailable 3-0 lead.

Canada came into Sunday’s ac­tion 2-0 down to Hungary, but the 2022 champions pulled level with a win in the doubles and Gabriel Diallo’s 6-1 6-3 defeat of Fabian Marozsan to take the tie to the final rubber.

Marton Fucsovics outfought Alexis Galarneau 7-6(8) 6-4, and the Hungarians were the final nation to make it through to the second round where they will meet Austria.

The first round of the Davis Cup had 26 teams playing for a place in September’s second round of qualifiers.

Last year’s runners-up, the Netherlands, will join the compe­tition in the second round which will consist of seven ties in a battle to make November’s Final 8 alongside hosts Italy. -Reuters