Czechs beat Serbia in Davis Cup doubles

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PRAGUE, Czech Republic, April 7 (UPI) -- The Czech Republic was a win away from advancing to the next round of the Davis Cup after topping Serbia in doubles play in Prague Saturday.

Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek defeated the Serbian duo of Nenad Zimonjic and Ilija Bozoliac 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) and can advance to the semifinals in Sunday's reverse-singles play.

Berdych and Stepanek both played in Friday's singles matches and were not scheduled to compete in doubles. Czech captain Jaroslav Navratil decided to pencil them in after Berdych breezed through his singles match.

The move paid off as Berdych and Stepanek won five consecutive games in the second match and ran their Davis Cup doubles record to 10-1.

Sunday's card has Berdych facing Janko Tipsarevic, and Stepanek on deck in the fifth rubber against Viktor Troicki.

Serbia will again be without the services of world No. 1 Novak Djokovic, who has skipped the first two rounds of the Cup.