French player Julien Benneteau (L) and Michael Llodra (R) react during the Davis Cup.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

TOULON, France -- France advanced to the Davis Cup quarter-finals after Michael Llodra and Julien Benneteau defeated Philipp Kohlschreiber and Christopher Kas 6-1, 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 on Saturday for an insurmountable 3-0 lead.

Benneteau converted the French duo's second match point with a forehand volley winner. Benneteau and Llodra played together for the first time in Davis Cup and broke their opponents four times.

On Friday, Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won the opening singles against Kohlschreiber and Benjamin Becker respectively.

France will play at home against either Spain or Switzerland in the quarter-finals July 9-11.

Coming off their victory in Marseille last month, Llodra and Benneteau won the first set in just 28 minutes after Kas missed a lob.

The French, who didn't lose a service game in the first two sets, broke their German rivals in the first game of the second set before Llodra served out the set with three consecutive winners.

Llodra and Benneteau then failed to stay at the same level and committed 13 unforced errors in the third set, allowing the Germans to break in the fourth game when Benneteau netted a volley.

The fourth set was tight most of the way. Benneteau gave his team a first match point in the 10th game with a good return but Kohlschreiber saved it with a service winner. Kas was then broken in the 12th game, sending the French team to the quarter-finals for the ninth time in 10 years.

Last year, France failed to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 2000 and had to beat the Netherlands in the playoffs to stay in the World Group.

Croatia takes insurmountable 3-0 lead over Ecuador to advance at Davis Cup

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

VARAZDIN, Croatia -- Croatia clinched a spot in the Davis Cup quarter-finals Saturday after Marin Cilic and Ivo Karlovic earned a straight-sets win in the doubles to give the host an insurmountable 3-0 lead.

The Croatian duo beat brothers Nicolas and Giovanni Lapentti 7-6 (3), 6-3, 7-5 after sweeping the opening singles on Friday.

"Even I didn't expect it to be that easy," coach Goran Prpic said. "This gives us a confidence to believe that we can move further than last year," when Croatia was ousted in the semifinals by the Czech Republic.

Croatia -- the 2005 Davis Cup champion -- will next face either Serbia or the United States. Serbia led 2-1 ahead of Sunday's reverse singles, and the Croatian team has made no secret that it wants to host its neighbour -- and archrival in politics and sports.

The two countries fought a war in 1991, and while they've since vastly improved relations, tensions between the two nations still occasionally flare up.

Cilic and Karlovic replaced original doubles pair Ivan Dodig and Antonio Veic for the doubles.

The Croats were broken to give Ecuador a 1-0 lead in the second set before winning four games in a row to take control for good.

"When we won first set, we relaxed," Karlovic said.

Both Karlovic and Cilic are having a good season: Cilic made it into the top 10 of the ATP rankings for the first time last month and Karlovic reached the final at Delray Beach, Florida last week.

The reverse singles, in which youngsters Dodig and Veic will play for Croatia, are scheduled for Sunday.

US wins doubles to cut Serbia's lead to 2-1 in Davis Cup

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Bob Bryan and John Isner beat Nenad Zimonjic and Janko Tipsarevic 7-6 (8), 5-7, 7-6 (8), 6-3 in doubles to keep the United States alive in the Davis Cup first round, cutting Serbia's lead to 2-1 on Saturday.

Isner was a last-minute replacement for Bob Bryan's twin Mike, who was sidelined with food poisoning. The Bryans are the world's top doubles team.

Isner, who made his Davis Cup debut on Friday, will try to even the tie on Sunday when he plays second-ranked Novak Djokovic in the first reverse singles on an indoor claycourt at Belgrade Arena. Sam Querrey is set to play the final singles against Viktor Troicki.

"I'm a bit tired now, but it won't affect me too much tomorrow against Djokovic," Isner, No. 20 in the world rankings, said. "I really have nothing to lose as he's the No. 2 player and not me."

On Friday, Isner lost the opener to Troicki while Djokovic beat Querrey.

The U.S. has only once won from trailing 2-0 in the Davis Cup, against Australia in 1934.

Serbia is trying to pass the World Group first round for the first time.

This was the first time that Bob Bryan played the doubles without his brother in the Davis Cup. The two have never lost a cup match on the road, and have a 9-0 record. The Bryans have 16 doubles wins together in the Davis Cup, the most of any U.S. doubles teams. Mike Bryan got sick after eating a hotel room service dinner on Friday.

"John is a good doubles player and I enjoyed playing behind his big serve," Bob Bryan said. "It definitely was a new experience for me, we pulled a couple of amazing tiebreakers."

The Serb duo wasted five set points in the first-set tiebreaker, with the Americans converting their second. In the third, a set point for the Serbs was annulled by the umpire and the point was given to the Americans after Zimonjic called an Isner service out during the play even though the ball was in.

"The referee was right, and I made a mistake," said Zimonjic, the world's top ranked doubles player. "All the credit to the Americans, who served real well and handled the pressure perfectly."