PARIS, Feb 5, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Belgium beat Croatia to book their place in

the Davis Cup Finals as Zizou Bergs grabbed the winning point on Sunday,
while France also progressed by completing a straightforward win over Taiwan.

Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen put the Belgians ahead with a surprise 2-6, 6-
3, 7-6 (7/4) doubles victory over Ivan Dodig and Mate Pavic, after Saturday's
opening singles matches were shared.

Bergs completed the job for the visitors in Varazdin, seeing off Duje
Ajdukovic 6-1, 7-5 to back up his opening-day success against former world
number three Marin Cilic.

Croatia will miss out on the Finals for the first time since the Davis Cup
format was changed in 2019.

This year's group phase will be played in September, with the knock-out stage
in Malaga in November.

France, already leading 2-0 from Saturday's singles, secured their passage
when Nicolas Mahut and Edouard Roger-Vasselin came back from a set down to
beat Hsu Yu-hsiou and Jason Jung 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7/1).

"We were perhaps a little timid at the start," said Roger-Vasselin.

"We stayed calm. We knew our level of play was going to change. We had to
keep our nerve."

Quentin Halys rounded off the French victory with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) win over
Jason Tseng.

The Czech Republic also qualified on Sunday with a 3-0 victory over Israel.

The Israeli doubles pairing of Daniel Cukierman and Edan Leshem had to retire
from their match against Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek.

Cukierman pulled up with a hamstring injury in the third game and had to give
up a few games later despite trying to continue.

"From the beginning, we played really well," said Machac. "I would like to
wish Dani a speedy recovery. This kind of ending is not nice."

Argentina clung on against underdogs Kazakhstan to win a dramatic tie 3-2.

Hosts Argentina took a 2-1 lead with a three-set victory in the doubles
before the Kazakhs launched an unlikely comeback, belying massive gaps in the
rankings between their players and the South Americans.

With Kazakhstan's number one Alexander Bublik winning the ATP event in
Montpellier, Timofey Skatov, the world number 278, beat 22nd-ranked Francisco
Cerundolo 7-6 (7/1), 6-4.

World number 338 Dmitry Popko then battled back from a set down to give
Sebastian Baez a scare in the deciding rubber, but missed two match points in
the third-set tie-break to slip to an agonising 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (8/6) defeat.

Slovakia, Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Brazil, USA and Canada also
qualified over the weekend.

Serbia, without Novak Djokovic, were stunned by a 4-0 loss to Slovakia.

Defending champions Italy and last year's runners-up Australia, as well as
Britain and Spain, have advanced automatically to the finals.