TENNIS in DEPTH.

Spain reached its second straight Davis Cup final when Feliciano Lopez and Tommy Robredo defeated Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram 76 67 64 62.

A flicked backhand volley from Robredo clinched the rubber and the tie to give Spain its 7th successive Davis Cup victory and extend its run of home victories to 17.

Spain will face Czech Republic in the final in Spain on 4-6 December with the venue to be announced in the next two weeks.

The Czechs became the first of the finalists after Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek accounted for Marin Cilic and Lovro Zovko. Berdych and Stepanek have achieved an honour that their nation has enjoyed just twice before in the 76 years the Czechs have been part of Davis Cup. In 1975, Czechoslovakia was runner-up to Sweden and then in 1980, led by Ivan Lendl, they beat Italy to win the title.

Berdych and Stepanek showed no ill effects of their long five set matches in the singles on the opening day. They came in as the substitutes for US Open doubles champion Lukas Dlouhy and Jan Hernych, and defeated Marin Cilic, who took the place of Roko Karanusic, and Lovro Zovko 61 63 64 in 2hr 16min.

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