Photographs: Reuters
Roger Federer suffered defeat for the second day in succession as United States completed a surprisingly comfortable victory over Switzerland in the Davis Cup World Group first round in Fribourg on Saturday.
Former World No. 1Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka needed to win the doubles to keep the tie alive after Friday's two singles went to the US but after a good start the Swiss pair lost 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 to Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan.
'I certainly know what it's like to lose'
Photographs: Reuters
It was payback time for Fish who suffered two heartbreaking defeats in marathon matches in last year's quarter-finals against Spain's Feliciano Lopez and David Ferrer.
"It feels pretty good to win," said Fish. "I certainly know what it's like to lose and it's not a great feeling.
"This guy (Bryan) is the greatest doubles player of all time and I'm just trying to play my part."
Davis cup still missing from Federer's CV
Photographs: Reuters
Federer has never won the Davis Cup and will have to wait at least another year to fill in one of the few blanks on his CV after a humbling couple of days in front of his home fans.
Having lost to big-serving World No. 17 John Isner on Friday, Olympic doubles champions Federer and Wawrinka were well beaten by Fish and Bryan as the Americans, winners of the team competition a record 32 times, swept to victory.
Spain join US in the quarters
Photographs: Reuters
Holders Spain joined the Americans in the quarter-finals as they moved 3-0 ahead against Kazakhstan in Oviedo to give new captain Alex Corretja a pleasing start in the absence of Ferrer and Rafa Nadal.
Last year's runners-up Argentina and Czech Republic also moved smoothly through with a day to spare against Germany and Italy respectively.
Japan have an uphill battle in their first World Group tie for 26 years, 2-1 down at home to Croatia.
Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Youzhny kept Russia alive in their tie in Austria with victory in Saturday's doubles meaning the visitors now trail 2-1.
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