India easily won both the reverse singles matches on Sunday to complete an impressive 5-0 scoreline against Taiwan in the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania group one tie in Indore.
Having taken an unassailable 3-0 lead, the hosts rested their No 1 player Somdev Devvarman to give debutant Saketh Myneni his maiden Cup experience in the singles.
Myneni, who had partnered Rohan Bopanna to victory in the doubles on Saturday, seized the opportunity by defeating Yang Tsung-Hua 6-1, 6-4 in the first reverse singles.
Yuki Bhambri then brushed aside Peng Hsien-Yin 7-5, 6-0 to record his eighth singles Cup win in nine outings.
India will travel to South Korea in April for the second round tie, where the winner advances into the play-offs for the elite World Group.
The eight losers from the World Group first round, which so far includes Canada, Spain, Australia and Serbia, will compete with the eight zonal group winners to determine who will make the 2015 World Group.
India, led by their newly-appointed non-playing captain Anand Amritraj, were without two long-time regulars as Leander Paes opted out of Davis Cup duty for the the entire year and Mahesh Bhupathi was dropped.
Japan, meanwhile, have called on their fans to ignore etiquette and follow the example of South American soccer fans when they make their first Davis Cup World Group quarter-final appearance in April.
Inspired by Kei Nishikori, Japan completed a 4-1 rout over injury-hit Canada on Sunday in a library-like atmosphere.
A tiny pocket of away fans managed to create more noise than 8,000 locals in Tokyo.
“Yes, there are rules and things you can’t do in tennis but we need more support,” Japan team captain Minoru Ueda told reporters.
“Look at football fans in South America. We have a different kind of support in Japan and a different culture. It’s just a shame Canada’s supporters were more rowdy.”
A section of around 80 Canadian fans banging on pots and pans and waving giant cardboard cut-out faces of their heroes helped energise a tie dampened by the withdrawal of Canada’s top two, Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil, through injury.
Nishikori’s tie-clinching win came when opponent Frank Dancevic retired with a pulled muscle while trailing 2-6, 0-1, giving Japan’s coup de grace a sense of anti-climax.
“We’re in the quarter-finals and it’s a whole new level,” added Ueda. “Therefore we need a new level of support. The Japanese should enjoy themselves more and create a fun atmosphere like Canada’s fans.”
Go Soeda, who won the final dead rubber, also called on Japan’s traditionally reserved fans to ditch protocol and make more noise -- and gave the oversized mugshots the thumbs up.
“Those would be fun,” he grinned. “It’s lovely the Japanese show such respect but you just wish they’d do stuff that annoys your opponent a bit, like they do in other countries.”
Japan will face either defending Davis Cup champions the Czech Republic or the Netherlands at home on April 4-6.
They had never previously reached the last eight since the 16-nation world group format began in 1981.
And twins Bob and Mike Bryan won 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 on Saturday to pull the United States to 2-1 against Britain in the first round.
“We’ve been waiting a long time to get another opportunity to get that bad taste out of our mouth,” Bob Bryan said. “It always feels bad to let the team down. We were kind of coming out of our shoes, really itching to get on the court.”
The match will be decided Sunday in reverse singles, when Wimbledon winner Andy Murray of Britain faces Sam Querrey. If Querrey can somehow pull an upset, it will then come down to James Ward of Britain against Donald Young. Murray won the opening singles match in straight sets against Young on Friday while Ward rallied to beat Querrey in five sets.
“Sam has a win over Andy. What do you tell him?” US coach Jim Courier said. “He has to play better than he did (against Ward) to stand a chance. Andy is a great player who plays well under pressure and Andy knows if he loses then everything is on the table in that fifth match.”
Three World Group matches have been clinched with 3-0 scores: Switzerland over Serbia, Germany against Spain and France against Australia.
In other matches, the Czech Republic lead Netherlands 2-1, Kazakhstan lead Belgium 2-1 and Italy lead Argentina 2-1.
