Davis Cup: Safin steps up, leads Russia past France

LONDON -- Marat Safin saved Russia, and sent the defending champions into the Davis Cup semifinals.

The former top-ranked Russian played for the first time in the best-of-five series Sunday and beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 6-2 in the deciding match to give the hosts a 3-2 win over France.

"It was a pure accident," said Safin, who is 29-18 in the Davis Cup. "I have not been playing for a long time and won quite unexpectedly."

Germany, Sweden and the United States qualified for the semifinals on Saturday, each taking 3-0 leads.

Safin, a two-time Grand Slam champion, broke Mathieu in the second game of the second set and twice in the third set on clay in Moscow. In the first set, Mathieu's powerful serve helped him save four break points in the 11th game, but Safin then served two aces and forced a tiebreaker.

Safin had 14 aces and 27 winners in the match.

In the first reverse singles match, Sebastien Grosjean beat Igor Andreev 7-5, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Grosjean, who was a late addition to the French team for the Davis Cup quarterfinals, broke Andreev in the fifth game of the final set with a forehand crosscourt shot and held on to win on his second match point.

"I tried to stay concentrated and be more aggressive," Grosjean said. "I was more motivated and fresh in the end of the match."

The match was the third straight in the series to go five sets. Mikhail Youzhny beat Richard Gasquet 6-2, 6-3, 6-7 (8), 5-7, 8-6 in Friday's second singles match, and Andreev and Nikolay Davydenko edged Grosjean and Michael Llodra 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in Saturday's doubles.

Russia also beat France to win its first Davis Cup title in 2002 and again in the quarterfinals in 2005 and '06. France hasn't beaten Russia since 1983.

Russia, which extended its unbeaten streak at home to 13, will face Germany in the Sept. 21-23 semifinals.

Belgium won the final two points at home on clay in Ostend against Germany. Christophe Rochus beat Michael Kohlmann 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, and Dick Norman downed Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-3.