9 April, 2017
Lucas Pouille and Jeremy Chardy moved France to the verge of the Davis Cup semi-finals on Friday with straight sets wins against a British team missing injured world number one Andy Murray.Pouille gave hosts France a winning start in the quarter-final with a 7-5, 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 victory over Kyle Edmund. Chardy then eased past Dan Evans, playing on clay for the first time in three years, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.Edmund, drafted into the singles line-up after the withdrawal of Murray with an elbow injury, was made to pay for letting slip a 5/2 lead in the second-set tiebreak.Pouille, the world number 17 and his team’s top singles player in the absence of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils, swept the breaker before dominating the deciding set.
- AFP