Tsonga, Gasquet have France up 2-0 over Israel in Davis Cup

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ROUEN, France, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Richard Gasquet raced through a straight-set win Friday that gave France a 2-0 lead in its best-of-five Davis Cup series against Israel.

Gasquet needed less than 2 hours to dispatch Dudi Sela 6-3, 6-2, 6-2. Earlier, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Amir Weintraub 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.

France can lock up a berth in April's Davis Cup quarterfinals with one win in the remaining three matches of the series. The French doubles team of Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra takes on Sela and Jonathan Erlich Saturday. The Sunday schedule calls for Tsonga to play Sela and Gasquet to face Weintraub.

The series winner would play either Argentina or Germany in the quarterfinals.

Tsonga had 19 aces among 63 winners. He dropped serve just once and didn't see a break point in the sets he won. Tsonga won about three-quarters of the points on serve.

Gasquet took nearly 70 percent of the points while serving and cashed in six of his seven break-point chances. He won 40-of-81 points when Sela served.