=== Czechs, Serbs reach World Team final ===
 
 Dusseldorf,  Germany (Sports  Network) -  The Czech  Republic and  Serbia will
 square  off  in Saturday's  best-of-three final  at the  World Team Cup tennis
 event, a final clay-court French Open tune-up.
 
 The  Czechs  (3-0) secured their berth  in the final with a tie-ending doubles
 victory  over  2011 runner-up  and 2010 champion  Argentina in the four-nation
 round-robin Red Group.
 
 After  splitting  a  pair  of  singles  rubbers over  the  last  two  days  at
 Rochusclub,  a Czech  tandem of Radek Stepanek and Frantisek Cermak snuck past
 an  Argentine duo  of Carlos  Berlocq  and Leonardo  Mayer 6-4,  4-6, 10-3  on
 Friday.  Earlier in the day, Mayer pulled Argentina (2-1) even with the Czechs
 with  a  6-7 (4-7),  7-5,  6-4  victory  over  Stepanek. On  Thursday,  former
 Wimbledon and recent Madrid Masters runner-up Tomas Berdych  beat Berlocq 6-1,
 6-7 (2-7), 6-3.
 
 The  last time the Czech Republic titled here was in 1981, when it was part of
 the former Czechoslovakia.
 
 This week's other Red Group combatants were the four-time winner United States
 (1-2) and Japan (0-3).
 
 The  Serbs (3-0)  captured the four-country Blue Group with a victory over the
 defending champion Germans (2-1).
 
 Janko  Tipsarevic gave 2009 champion Serbia an insurmountable 2-0 lead against
 Germany  with a  6-4,  3-6,  7-5 victory  over  Philipp Kohlschreiber.  Viktor
 Troicki  gave the  Serbs a 1-0 lead  on Thursday by handling Florian Mayer 7-6
 (8-6), 6-3.
 
 A  meaningless  doubles rubber saw  a German  tandem of Philipp Petzschner and
 Christopher  Kas douse a Serbian duo of Marko Jankovic and Nenad Zimonjic 6-4,
 6-4.
 
 Germany  captured  a  record-breaking  fifth World  Team  title  with  victory
 over four-time champion Argentina a year ago.
 
 Saturday's  Czech Republic-Serbia final will open with a match between Berdych
 and  Tipsarevic, and  that will  be followed  by a  bout between  Stepanek and
 Troicki.  The  potentially-deciding  doubles  match will  be  announced  later
 Saturday.
 
 The  other  Blue Group  participants this  week were  Russia (1-2) and Croatia
 (0-3).  The Russians  beat the former champion Croats 2-1, including a pair of
 wins  on  Friday when  Alex Bogomolov Jr.  leveled Lovro Zovko  6-4, 6-2 and a
 Russian  pairing of  Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov overcame a Croatian duo
 of Zovko and Ivan Dodig 2-6, 6-3, 10-3.
 
 
 
 05/25 16:33:24 ET

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