Doubles win keeps Kazakhs in Davis Cup

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, April 6 (UPI) -- Andrey Golubev and Yuriy Schukin kept Kazakhstan's Davis Cup hopes alive with a straight-set win Saturday in doubles over the Czech Republic.

The Czech, defending Davis Cup champions, won both singles matches Friday for a commanding lead in the best-of-five quarterfinal series. But Golubev and Schukin came away with a 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-3 win Saturday over Jan Hajek and Radek Stepanek to extend the series into Sunday's reverse singles.

Lukas Rosol, who defeated Golubev Friday, takes on Mikhail Kukushkin and Hajek, who was also a singles winner Friday, goes against Golubev in those Sunday matches.

The series winner qualifies for the Davis Cup semifinals in September against either Argentina or France, which split their singles matches Friday. Kazakhstan has never made it to the semifinals before.

Hajek and Stepanek grabbed an early lead with a break in the third game Saturday but the Kazakhs rallied by breaking Hajek as he served for the first set. That led to the tiebreaker, which Golubev and Schukin controlled.

The Kazakhs went ahead in the second set with a break of Stepanek's serve for a 5-4 lead and broke again in the first game of the third set, one of two breaks in the set.

The Czechs managed to convert just one of their nine break points chances, including going 0-for-7 when the match turned in the second set.