Belgium sweeps France to kick off Davis Cup quarterfinals

Raphael Collignon and Zizou Bergs guided Belgium to a 2-0 sweep of France in the opening quarterfinal match of the Davis Cup Finals on Tuesday in Bologna, Italy.

Collignon dropped his first set against Corentin Moutet before rallying for a 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 victory. Bergs then finished the job with a 6-3, 7-6 (4) victory over Arthur Rinderknech. The singles wins rendered the scheduled doubles match moot.

Bergs won 33 of 42 first-service points (78.6%) and converted two of his three break-point opportunities. Bergs lost a 5-3 lead in the second set as Rinderknech won three straight games, but the Belgian fought back to force a tiebreaker and soon ran away with it.

Belgium will face the winner between Italy, the host nation and defending champion, versus Austria, who will face off Wednesday. The other four teams in the single-elimination bracket are Germany, Argentina, Czech Republic and Spain.