DUESSELDORF, Germany, May 21: Argentina and Chile set up a Latin American showdown for Blue Group supremacy at the World Team Cup after both teams won their second successive matches on a day when favourites Spain were knocked out.

David Nalbandian and Gaston Gaudio won their singles rubbers to give Argentina an unbeatable 2-0 lead against hosts Germany.

Chile then surged to a 2-0 lead against Sweden thanks to comprehensive wins by Nicolas Massu and Fernando Gonzalez.

The winner of Friday’s match between the two will top the Blue Group and advance to Saturday’s final.

Spain’s title chances ended when Carlos Moya and Alex Corretja lost the deciding doubles 6-3 6-4 to Jiri Novak and Radek Stepanek.

The Czech Republic top the Red Group with a 2-0 record.

David Nalbandian, runner-up at Wimbledon last year and a semi-finalist in Hamburg last week, outbattled Rainer Schuettler 6-4 7-5 to put Argentina ahead against Germany.

Nalbandian’s greater power was the key to his victory over Schuettler, who was playing his first singles match of the week after fainting in Hamburg.

After trading early breaks in the first set, Nalbandian edged ahead again with a further break and held on to take the first set.

The German responded to the urgings of his home crowd in the second set with some brave play but Nalbandian always held the upper hand and one break of serve, in the 11th game, set him up for victory.

“He was very consistent today and I just didn’t take my chances,” Schuettler said.

Tomas Behrend, who beat Marcelo Rios in Germany’s opening match, was unable to repeat his heroics and Gaston Gaudio sealed an unbeatable lead for his country with a confident 6-2 6-4 victory.

Chile made it two wins from two matches with a powerful performance against Sweden, who, like Spain and Germany, can now no longer qualify for the final.

Massu, standing in for Rios, who said he felt he needed more practice, required just one hour, 10 minutes to beat Enqvist 6-2 6-3, thanks in large part to 34 unforced errors from the Swede.

The Chilean stormed through the first set and one break was enough to give him the second and wrap up the win.

Gonzalez then crushed former world number two Magnus Norman 6-2 6-3.

Results

BLUE GROUP