U.S follow holders Spain out of Davis Cup

Switzerland produced the second shock of the Davis Cup weekend when they beat the United States 3-2 on Sunday -- a day after holders Spain were felled by the Netherlands.

Playing in front of his Basle home crowd, Roger Federer battled past Jan-Michael Gambill 7-5 6-2 4-6 6-2 to give the Swiss an unassailable 3-1 lead and their first Davis Cup win over the competition's most successful nation.

It was only the fifth time the Americans, winners 31 times, had gone out in the opening round. Their last first round defeat was in 1993 against Australia.

Federer, fresh from winning his first ATP Tour title in Milan, weathered a third set comeback by Gambill. He closed out the tie with an ace and then broke into tears as the crowd gave him a standing ovation.

"Roger simply played better than I did today," said Gambill. "I worked my ass off out there, I tried as hard as I could."

American Andy Roddick won the dead rubber against George Bastl.

Switzerland play France in the second round after Fabrice Santoro and Arnaud Clement completed a 5-0 rout of Belgium in Ghent.

Holders Spain crashed out in Eindhoven on Saturday when defeat in the doubles for Alex Corretja and Juan Balcells gave the Dutch an unbeatable 3-0 lead.

PROSPECT

After winning the title for the first time last year, the Spanish now face the prospect of a play-off to avoid relegation from the world group.

But new captain Jordi Arrese insisted Spain could repeat their success in the near future.

"I'm certain we have the team to win the cup again whatever the circumstances," he said.

"We prepared for this tie very well and our job now is to prepare for the play-off just as well to ensure we don't go down."

Jan Siemerink set up the chance of a Dutch clean sweep when he defeated Juan Balcells in the opening reverse singles. But Carlos Moya salvaged some Spanish pride by beating Raemon Sluiter 6-4 7-6.

The Netherlands' quarter-final opponents will be three times winners Germany who battled back to beat Romania 3-2 in Braunschweig.

Nicolas Kiefer crushed Romania's Gabriel Trifu 6-3 6-1 6-4 in the deciding singles after team mate Tommy Haas had earlier pulled the hosts level with victory over Romanian number one Andre Pavel.

In Bratislava, Yevgeny Kafelnikov came from two sets down to beat Slovakia's Karol Kucera 4-6 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-2 in an epic final rubber and secure a 3-2 victory for Russia.

Dominik Hrbaty had put Slovakia level when he beat Russian number one Marat Safin in straight sets.

Russia will face Sweden, who defeated the Czech Republic 3-2 in Helsingborg.

Sweden's Thomas Johansson beat Jiri Novak 7-6 6-3 6-7 6-2 in the decisive second singles rubber. Earlier, Bohdan Ulihrach had squared the tie by thrashing world number five Magnus Norman in straight sets.

Australia play Brazil in the next round after Lleyton Hewitt and Pat Rafter won their reverse singles for a 4-1 victory over Ecuador in Perth.

Brazil also won their Rio de Janeiro tie against Morocco by the same margin. Gustavo Kuerten comfortably beat Mounir El Aarej, but Karim Alami gained some consolation for the Moroccans with a 6-4 0-6 6-3 victory over Alexandre Simoni in the final rubber.