LONDON, April 8: A quartet of thirty-somethings, led by Jonas Bjorkman at 35, took former champions Sweden and Germany into the semi-finals of the Davis Cup on Saturday.

They were joined by the US who took a winning 3-0 lead over Spain in North Carolina. In Moscow, holders Russia lead France 2-1.

Swede Bjorkman and 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson, 32, gave their country a 3-0 winning lead over 2006 runners-up Argentina with a 4-6, 7-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over David Nalbandian and Guillermo Canas in the doubles in Gothenburg.

Sweden, seven times champions, had not reached the final four of the world group since 2001.

Germany took a 3-0 unassailable lead over Belgium after Michael Kohlmann, 34, and Alexander Waske, 32, defeated brothers Olivier and Christophe Rochus 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1.

The Germans have been champions on three occasions but the last time they were semi-finalists was in 1995, when Boris Becker was their top player and Philipp Kohlschreiber, who made a victorious cup debut in Friday's singles, was 11 years old.

On a busy day for the statisticians, Russia recorded their first Davis Cup doubles win over France to take a 2-1 lead in the Moscow quarter-final.

Nikolay Davydenko, standing in for Marat Safin who had a foot injury, and Igor Andreev beat Sebastien Grosjean and Michael Llodra 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to become the first Russian or Soviet doubles pair to beat France in seven meetings, going back to 1973.

Germany were the fastest team into September's semi-finals, continuing a long tradition of thrashing Belgium.—Reuters