Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic beat Michael Ryderstedt of Sweden in straight sets yesterday to send the defending champion through to the Davis Cup semifinals.

Tipsarevic won 6-2, 7-5, 6-3 to give Serbia an unassailable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five series in Halmstad, Sweden.

The Serbians won the two opening singles matches but Swedish pair Simon Aspelin and Robert Lindstedt stunned top-ranked Novak Djokovic and Nenad Zimonjic in Saturday's doubles match.

Djokovic skipped the singles to rest his sore left knee while Sweden's top player Robin Soderling didn't play.

Serbia will take on Argentina in the semifinals.

In Stuttgart, France completed a 4-1 victory over Germany in their quarterfinal by splitting yesterday's reverse singles.

France was already assured of a place in the semifinals after winning Saturday's doubles for an unassailable 3-0 lead.

Philipp Petzschner earned host Germany's only point by beating Michael Llodra 6-3, 6-4, before Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5) in the final rubber.

In Beijing, Lleyton Hewitt secured Australia's passage into the Davis Cup World Group playoffs with a 6-2, 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (2) win over China's Zhang Ze to give Australia an unassailable 3-1 lead in the Asia-Oceania second-round match.

The 173rd-ranked Hewitt, originally only listed to play in Saturday's doubles, replaced Marinko Matosevic for the first of yesterday's reverse singles.

The former No. 1-ranked Hewitt repaid the faith of team captain Pat Rafter, recording his 37th win in 46 Cup singles matches.

On Saturday, Hewitt helped give Australia a 2-1 lead after a straight-sets win in doubles with partner Chris Guccione.