8 April 2013 | Tennis Queensland

BERNARD Tomic completed his Davis Cup redemption when he clinched victory over Uzbekistan to earn Australia another shot at returning to the competition’s top tier.

Tomic defeated Uzbek No.1 Denis Istomin in the opening reverse singles match on clay in Namangan to give Australia a 3-1 victory in the best-of-five Asia/Oceania second-round tie. It capped a happy return to the team for Tomic, who also beat Farrukh Dustov on Friday to get Australia off to a strong start.

After being dropped by captain Pat Rafter from the previous tie due to attitude problems, Tomic indicated in January he would not be available against Uzbekistan. But after the pair buried the hatchet, he was recalled and showed plenty of commitment to Australia’s cause in tough conditions.

“It’s a huge thing for me to get back in the team,” Tomic said. “I told Pat ‘thanks very much for picking me again’ and I think I did really well this time. To win today and on Friday is huge and I’m happy I played the way I did. We worked hard the week before with the boys as a team and I think that’s what got the best out of me here.”

Tomic took advantage of a tiring Istomin, who was playing for the third straight day and spent four hours on court in Saturday’s gruelling five-set doubles loss to Lleyton Hewitt and Matt Edben.

The tough Uzbek claimed a tight first set but from there it was all Tomic as he stamped his authority on the choppy Pahlavon Sport Complex court.

Rafter described it as some of Tomic’s best tennis and urged him to continue heading in the right direction with his attitude and commitment. “He’s still got a way to go and he knows it too but he’s made inroads and that’s the important thing,” Rafter said.

ARGENTINA lead France 2-1 in their Davis Cup World Group quarter-final tie after David Nalbandian and Horacio Zeballos came from behind to win the doubles.

French duo Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra took the first set but Nalbandian and Zeballos fought back to clinch the match 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 6-3 to give the hosts the upper hand before the reverse singles.

The teams were all square after Argentine Juan Monaco had levelled the tie following Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s victory over Carlos Berlocq on Friday. Monaco is set to face Tsonga in the opening reverse singles, with Berlocq up against Gilles Simon.

Serbia took a huge step towards the Davis Cup semi-finals by outlasting hosts the US in a marathon five-set win in the doubles clash.

Ilija Bozoljac and Nenad Zimonjic shocked the top-ranked doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-1) 5-7 4-6 15-13 to give Serbia a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five tie heading into the reverse singles.