Sawt Falasteen - Argentina down Ruud's Norway in Davis Cup qualifying

In a tense tie in Oslo which had begun on Thursday world number five Ruud won both his singles matches but Mariano Navone's 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 defeat of Nicolai Budkov Kjaer late into the night knocked Norway out of the competition.

Over in Stockholm world number eight Alex de Minaur helped Australia to a 2-0 lead over Sweden.

De Minaur, a beaten quarter-finalist in the Australian Open, felled Mikael Ymer 7-5, 6-1 before Aleksandar Vukic got the better of Leo Borg, son of 11-time Grand Slam winner Bjorn Borg, 6-4, 6-4.

In Taiwan, the United States claimed both the opening day singles thanks to wins from Marcos Giron and Alex Michelson.

Britain and Japan are all square at 1-1 after day one in Miki.

Davis Cup debutant Jacob Fearnley defeated former world number four Kei Nishikori 6-3 6-3 to level the tie after the home side's Yoshihito Nishioka's 7-5 6-1 victory against Billy Harris.

Germany are on target for the next round, leading in Israel 2-0, and Austria go into day two in control over Finland by the same margin.

Serbia, missing injured Novak Djokovic, are 2-0 up against Denmark, and the Czech Republic are also sitting pretty 2-0 in South Korea. Croatia are also 2-0 up against Slovakia.

The ties between Brazil v France, Chile v Belgium, Switzerland v Spain, and Canada v Hungary, begin on Saturday.

Jannick Sinner's Italy won the eight-team men's event in Spain last year for the first time in 47 years.

As a result Italy get a free pass to the final in Bologna in November.

The defending champions are taking over hosting duties from Malaga.

The 2024 runners-up the Netherlands get a bye to the second round of qualifying in September.

This weekend's first round features 26 teams competing in 13 ties.

Each tie consists of two singles matches on day one, and a doubles match followed by two singles matches on day two.

The 13 winners will advance to the second round.

The Davis Cup was first held in 1900 making it the longest running international men's team event in sport.

N.AbuHussein--SF-PST