DUSSELDORF, Germany, May 23 (UPI) -- Philipp Kohlschreiber bested Croatia's Lovro Zovko Wednesday, handing defending champion Germany a second-round win at the World Team Cup tennis event.
Kohlschreiber's 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) over the Croatian in the day's second singles match boosted the Germans to a 2-0 record in Blue Group play on the clay courts of Rochusclub in Dusseldorf.
Florian Mayer took Tuesday's first singles tie while the German tandem of Christopher Kas and Philipp Petzschner snuck by Croatia's Zovko and Ivan Dodig 6-4, 1-6, 10-3 in a dead-rubber doubles match.
Also moving to 2-0 Wednesday was Argentina, which completed a victory over Japan with Carlos Berlocq's 6-3, 6-4 triumph over Go Soeda.
Leonardo Mayer on Tuesday supplied a singles decision for Argentina, which completed Wednesday's action with a dead-rubber 6-7 (3-7), 6-1, 10-7 doubles triumph over Japan.
Japan will now face the United States, which also fell to 0-2 in the round-robin tournament after Tuesday's loss to the Czech Republic.
