MALMO (Sweden), April 5: Todd Woodbridge and Wayne Arthurs gave Australia an unassailable 3-0 lead and a place in the Davis Cup semifinals after a 6-4 6-2 6-2 doubles win over Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman and Thomas Enqvist on Saturday.

Australia will face either France or Switzerland, who were locked at 1-1 following Friday’s opening singles matches, in the last four.

Despite a promising start with three break points in Arthurs’s opening service game, Enqvist and Bjorkman crumbled under pressure after losing the first set 6-4.

Clearly lacking in doubles expertise, Enqvist struggled to keep up with the tactical play employed by the Australians.

But Bjorkman, who is Woodbridge’s regular doubles partner on the ATP Tour, also failed to handle the pace generated by the Australians and was broken several times.

He missed a forehand volley and was broken to 5-4 in the first set and then again to go down 2-1 in the second.

The match was briefly halted at 3-1 during Enqvist’s serve when Bjorkman accidentally hit Arthurs in the groin with a volley.

The Australian collapsed on court in pain but wasted little time in recovering from the episode to continue the clash.

The Australians powered on and broke Enqvist to go up 4-1.

Pom-pom girls and Swedish samba beats in the stadium could not help Enqvist and Bjorkman as Woodbridge served out the second set 6-2.

They outclassed the Swedes in the third to romp to a 4-0 lead before Woodbridge served out to love to clinch the tie 6-2.

VALENCIA (Spain): Alex Corretja and Albert Costa brushed aside Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic and Lovro Zovko to win Saturday’s doubles 6-2 6-3 6-4 and take Spain through to the Davis Cup semifinals with an unbeatable 3-0 lead.