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Federer win in singles lifts Swiss to Davis Cup playoff win

Britain are playing in their first semi-final in 34 years and have been without a Davis Cup title since 1936.

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“To come back from the disappointment of that fourth set, we kept fighting hard and we stuck together, like brothers should”, Andy Murray said. “The crowd was fantastic from the first point to the last”.

At Glasgow, after Murray brushed aside Thanasi Kokkinakis with a 6-3, 6-0, 6-3 win, a surprise decision to pick the 300th-ranked Evans for the second match failed to deliver as Tomic came through for a 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (4), 6-4 victory.

On Saturday, Ruben Bemelmans and Kimmer Coppejans for the home side will face Carlos Berlocq and Diego Schwartzman in the doubles.

That opening stage loss forced Switzerland into a play-off but with Federer and Wawrinka back in the line-up, they opened up a 2-0 lead over the Netherlands in Geneva on Friday.

Switzerland’s Roger Federer, right, watched by his double partner, Marco Chiudinelli, below, returns the ball to Netherlands Matwe Middelkoop, and Thiemo De Bakker, during the their double match of the Davis Cup World Group Play-off round match between Switzerland and Netherlands, at the Palexpo, in Geneva, Switzerland, Saturday, September 19, 2015.

“He moves so fast on the court – he’s like a ghost”, said Huta Galung of Federer.

“I lost my head”, admitted de Bakker.

In other play-off results, Czech Republic took a 2-1 lead over India, Adam Pavlasek and Radek Stepanek pulling off a fairly straightforward 7-5 6-2 6-2 victory over Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes.

The United States, the 32-time champions but also battling to preserve their World Group status, were 1-1 with Uzbekistan in Tashkent.

Rafael Nadal was also in action for Spain, helping the country to an unassailable 3-0 lead over Denmark in a second-tier relegation playoff.

Nadal returned to Davis Cup tennis after a two-year absence for the match and secured his 22nd consecutive win in the competition. Victor Estrella Burgos won against Dustin Brown 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5), while Philipp Kohlschreiber equalised the score by winning against Jose Hernandez-Fernandez 6-1, 6-3, 6-1.

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Among other World Group playoffs, Italy and Russian Federation were level at 1-1, as were Germany and the Dominican Republic and Poland vs. Slovakia.

Federer and Chiudinelli suffer Davis Cup defeat