Davis Cup 2012: Americans Sweep The Swiss In First-Round Upset

Davis Cup 2012, First Round Results: Serbia Shocks Russia, Spain Sweeps Kazakhstan

No Djokovic? No problem.

At least, that's how today went for the world No. 1 Novak Djokovic's country in Davis Cup play. Serbia stunned Russia with a 3-2 victory to advance to the quarterfinal round of the world team tournament.

Djokovic missed the first round of tournament play to rest for the Olympics later this year. Spain was also missing the country's top player in world No. 2 Rafael Nadal. He skipped the opening round for the same reason as Djokovic.

Spain, however, had clinched the victory on Saturday against Kazakhstan with its doubles victory and ended its Davis Cup matchup with a 5-0 sweep to move them into the quarters.

World No. 3 Roger Federer did play for his home country. He lost Friday in a singles match to American John Isner. The Americans closed out Switzerland with a 5-0 sweep to also earn a trip to the quarters.

Other results from Sunday include the Czech Republic defeating Italy 4-1 and Argentina beating Germany by the same score. Croatia edged out Japan 3-2 to move onto the next round which will be played from April 6 to April 8.

Quarterfinal match-ups include Spain against Austria, USA against France/Canada, the Czech Republic against Serbia and Croatia against Argentina.

Davis Cup 2012, First Round: U.S. Completes Swiss Sweep, 5-0

Though the United States had clinched its first round upset over Switzerland in the 2012 Davis Cup the day before, Sunday's matches — Ryan Harrison against Michael Lammer, John Isner against Marco Chiudinelli — still went off without a hitch, the four competitors playing for personal and national pride. Again, the United States managed to come out on topboth times, finishing off its 5-0 sweep of the favored Swiss team.

Roger Federer, Mardy Fish and Stanislaw Wawrinka sat out Sunday's inconsequential matches — all three not only competed in the first round of singles play but also competed in Saturday's deciding doubles match — so it took a little of the luster off the wins, but a 5-0 victory is a 5-0 victory. The Yanks will play the winner of the yet-to-be-decided Canada-France pairing.

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Davis Cup 2012, First Round: U.S. Clinches Win Over Switzerland In First Round

After John Isner's shocking win against Roger Federer on Friday, coupled with Mardy Fish's triumph over Stanislas Wawrinka, all the Davis Cup team from the United States needed to do was win one of the following three matches. On Saturday, the doubles team of Fish and Mike Bryan — playing without twin brother Bob — won three consecutive sets after dropping the first to the Federer-Wawrinka doubles team to clinch a massive upset in the first round of the 2012 Davis Cup.

The U.S. will face the winner of Canada-France in the second round in early April. The two countries are knotted at 1-1 after the first day of play. If Canada manages to win, it will give the U.S. a huge advantage in their next round of play. The French team is one of the better ones in the field with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and, whenever he's healthy, Gaël Monfils. If Fish and Isner can continue their inspired play in international competition, however, it may not matter much who their opponent is ... unless it's Spain. They're really good.

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Davis Cup 2012 Results: Defending Champ Spain Ahead 2-0, Nalbandian Propels Argentina

Davis Cup 2012 Results: John Isner Upsets Roger Federer In 4 Sets

Just a couple weeks after losing in the semifinals of the 2012 Australian Open, Roger Federer fell again, though this time against slightly less marquee opponent. Not to take anything away from John Isner, who came into 2012 Davis Cup match ranked No. 17 in the world, but Federer rarely ever succumbs to anyone not named Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal.

The No. 3-ranked Swiss looked much like his usual self in the first set, winning all but three of his serves for a 6-4 set victory. He faltered some in the second set, however. Isner broke Federer in the sixth game on his way to taking the set 6-3. Both players held serve in the third set, but Federer struggled to keep his first serves in late in the tiebreak. Isner took the set despite winning 44 points to 45 for Federer.

Isner dominated the fourth and final set, serving up five aces to one for Federer. The win gave the United States a 2-0 lead over Switzerland in the first round of the Davis Cup, with doubles on tap.

For 2012 Davis Cup news and results, please stay tuned to this StoryStream. For complete tennis coverage, head on over to SB Nation's dedicated tennis hub.

Davis Cup 2012 Results: Mardy Fish Wins First Round Match Over Stanislas Wawrinka

The first U.S. men's rubber match against Switzerland took place on Day 1 of competition in the 2012 Davis Cup in Fribourg, Switzerland. The first match pitted No. 8 Mardy Fish against Stanislas Wawrinka. Fish was hoping to rebound from his last tournament outing, when he was upset early and bounced from the 2012 Australian Open last month.

The match between Fish and Wawrinka went back and forth before culminating in an epic fifth set. Finally, after four hours and 26 minutes, Fish picked up the win, 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 9-7.

After the blowout fourth set, it seemed inevitable that Fish would pick up the fifth set in short order, but Wawrinka bounced back in a big way. He kept Fish on the ropes early on and the set raged back and forth until finally Fish was able to pull away.

The second rubber match between Switzerland and the United States will pit Roger Federer against John Isner.

For 2012 Davis Cup news and results, please stay tuned to this StoryStream. For complete tennis coverage, head on over to SB Nation's dedicated tennis hub.

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