Serbia beats Sweden in Davis Cup quarterfinal

HALMSTAD, Sweden (AP)  Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic beat Michael Ryderstedt of Sweden in straight sets Sunday to send the defending champion through to the Davis Cup semifinals against Argentina.

Tipsarevic won 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 to give Serbia an unassailable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five series on an indoor hard court in Halmstad. Viktor Troicki made it 4-1 for Serbia when Robert Lindstedt retired with a sore right wrist in the third set of the final singles match.

The Serbians won the two opening singles matches but Swedish pair Simon Aspelin and Robert Lindstedt stunned top-ranked Novak Djokovic and Nenad Zimonjic in Saturday's doubles match.

Djokovic skipped the singles to rest his sore left knee, while Sweden's top player, Robin Soderling, passed on the entire event, saying he needed time to rest.

Tipsarevic cruised through the first set but lost his serve early in the second. He fought back to level and then broke Ryderstedt's serve to go up 6-5 before clinching the set.

The 297th-ranked Swede lost momentum and was unable to challenge Tipsarevic, ranked 29th, in the third set.

"It feels really great," Tipsarevic said. "I know that Serbia was a huge favorite to win with Robin Soderling not here and Novak coming, but I'm happy to have helped my country once again get through to the semifinals."

Ryderstedt said he learned a lot in his first Davis Cup matches.

"It was a very difficult task even though we played at home to face players ranked so much higher," he said.

Ryderstedt pushed Viktor Troicki to four sets in his Davis Cup debut on Friday. Sweden's Ervin Eleskovic retired with a knee injury against Tipsarevic, giving Serbia a 2-0 lead heading into the doubles.

Lindstedt replaced Eleskovic to play Troicki in the second reverse singles match. Lindstedt won the first set 6-3 and Troicki took the second 6-4 before the Swede retired.

Tipsarevic said Argentina's David Nalbandian will be a key challenge when Serbia hosts the semifinals clash in September.

"If David Nalbandian comes in really good shape then I feel it's going to be really, really tricky," Tipsarevic said. "Whichever surface we choose I think it's going to be a really tough match."

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