Berdych-Stepanek carry Czechs into Davis Cup final

Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek put defending champions CzechRepublic into the Davis Cup final by beating Argentina's Carlos Berlocq and Horacio Zeballos in the doubles on Saturday.

World number five Berdych and U.S. Open doubles champion Stepanek defeated the Argentines 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, giving the Czechs an unassailable 3-0 lead in their semi-final and a place in their third final in five years.

They will face either Canada or Serbia on November 15-17.

The Czechs' all-time best doubles pairing with a 13-1 record were playing together for the first time this season and, after winning their singles matches on Friday, looked more at ease than the Argentines with the faster play on the hard court at Prague's O2 Arena.

The CzechRepublic also defeated Argentina in Buenos Aires in last year's semi-finals on their way to lifting the Cup for the first time since Czechoslovakia won it in 1980.

Image: Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek (right) and Tomas Berdych (left) are congratulated by team captain Jaroslav Navratil after defeating Argentina's Horacio Zeballos and Carlos Berlocq during their Davis Cup semi-final doubles match in Prague on Saturday.

Photograph: David W Cerny/Reuters