Serbs into semis

SERBIA'S Janko Tipsarevic beat Michael Ryderstedt of Sweden in straight sets to send the defending champions through to the Davis Cup semi-finals against Argentina.

Tipsarevic won 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 to give Serbia an unassailable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five series on an indoor hard court in Halmstad. Viktor Troicki made it 4-1 for Serbia when Robert Lindstedt retired with a sore right wrist in the third set of the final singles match.

The Serbians won the two opening singles matches but Swedish pair Simon Aspelin and Robert Lindstedt stunned top-ranked Novak Djokovic and Nenad Zimonjic in Saturday's doubles match. Djokovic skipped the singles to rest his sore left knee, while Sweden's top player, Robin Soderling, passed on the entire event, saying he needed time to rest.

Elsewhere, France completed a 4-1 quarter-final win over Germany by splitting yesterday's reverse singles.