Berdych delivers Czech Davis Cup win

GENEVA, Switzerland, Feb. 3 (UPI) -- Tomas Berdych beat Stanislas Wawrinka in four sets Sunday, giving the defending champion Czech Republic a Davis Cup series win over Switzerland.

Berdych defeated Wawrinka 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5) for an insurmountable lead in the best-of-five first-round series. Swiss player Henri Laaksonen rallied to a 0-6, 6-3, 6-1 win over the Czechs' Jiri Vesely, making the final series score 3-2.

It was the third point of the series for Berdych, who had a four-set singles win Friday that evened the series at 1-1 and teamed with Lukas Rosol in a record-setting doubles win Saturday in which the Czechs edged Wawrinka and Marco Chiudinelli 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7 (3-7), 24-22.

That match took 7 hours, 1 minute to complete with Berdych and Rosol getting the sixth break of the day in the 25th game of the final set.

Berdych and Wawrinka played as close Sunday with Berdych finishing off his only break chance of the first set, while saving four against Wawrinka, for the lead. He had two more breaks in going up 2-0 but Wawrinka lost only seven points in serve in the third set to keep the match going.

Neither player managed a break chance in the fourth set but Berdych was able to claim the victory in the tiebreaker. He won two more points -- the difference in the tiebreaker -- in the set.

The Czechs continue their title defense in April with a quarterfinal series against Kazakhstan, which defeated Austria in its first-round series.