CHARLEROI, Belgium (AP)—Spain swept into the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup on Saturday when it beat Belgium in doubles for an insurmountable 3-0 lead.
Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez beat Steve Darcis and Olivier Rochus 7-6 (0), 6-4, 6-3 on Saturday on the hard-court of the Spiroudome. Spain hasn’t dropped a set in the three matches.
Spain will travel in July to play the winner of the tie between Chile and the United States.
Even though world No. 6 David Ferrer withdrew with a shoulder injury at the last moment, it hardly mattered to Spain as top-ranked Rafael Nadal and No. 9 Verdasco easily won their singles on Friday.
The quick win against Belgium made it an ideal return from injury for Nadal. On Friday, it was clear his left thigh injury was no longer bothering him and he never gave world No. 144 Ruben Bemelmans a chance, winning 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.
Belgium didn’t help its cause by laying a much slower hardcourt in the Spiroudome than intended and then finding out that many in the 6,500 crowd were Spanish fans instead of local.
“The crowd was unbelievable,” Nadal said. It proved again on Saturday.
The Belgians put up their toughest defense of the whole weekend in the first set and forced Verdasco and Lopez into a tiebreaker before Verdasco slammed aces and passing shots which turned the tiebreaker into a 7-0 rout.
Darcis and Rochus, both outside the top 100, got to 4-4 in the second set but crumbled when the big points came up.
The third set was reduced to exhibition tennis as Spain comfortably took the match.
Spain currently is the top-ranked Davis Cup team and this year they want to win the cup to prove it. They lost last year in the quarterfinals to France.
It is unlikely Nadal will play in Sunday’s matches and is set to head for the Paribas Open in Indian Wells for next week’s ATP event.