France reach Davis Cup final by beating the Czech Republic

Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga each won their respective singles rubbers on Friday and the duo cumulated to clinch a 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 triumph against Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych on the Roland Garros clay.

France, who will now contest their first final since 2010, may have had home advantage for the tie, but that should not detract from a superb victory against the Czech Republic - who have won the Davis Cup for the past two years.

The duo of Gasquet and Tsonga accommodated up 16 aces and hit 82 triumphers, as Stepanek and Berdych's 10-match winning streak as a pairing came to an abrupt halt.

Speaking after the acquire victory, a delectated Gasquet verbally expressed: "I'm very proud and very blissful. It's great to acquire victory against the Czech Republic. We fought a lot.

"It's an astronomically immense accolade for us to win 3-0 and go to the final. It's an astronomically immense victory for us."

Tsonga integrated: "It's for sure one of the best moments in our vocation to play here in a semi-final and to win on the second day. We always kept the fighting spirit and stayed in the match - we all ken the Davis Cup is tough."

France's opponents are still to be decided after Italy won their doubles rubber with Switzerland to ascertain the tie was sustained.

Having fallen behind 2-0 by losing Friday's two singles matches, Italy needed a replication and the team of Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini duly distributed in a five-set thriller that culminated 7-5 3-6 5-7 6-3 6-2 over Marco Chiudinelli and Stanislas Wawrinka in Geneva.

The epic encounter lasted virtually four hours and Fognini is liable to have an expeditious turnaround as he is set to play Roger Federer in one of Sunday's singles rubbers, albeit he admits the situation will be reviewed.

"It's still going to be very arduous for us but it's a little less arduous than afore," he commented. "It depends if I play tomorrow, we have to decide. I'm marginally tired, but Simone and I always played long matches."