Naples: Italy staged a superb fightback on Sunday to beat Britain in the Davis Cup quarter-finals as Fabio Fognini shocked Andy Murray, and Andreas Seppi eased past James Ward in the decisive fifth match.
After securing back-to-back wins over Italy on Saturday for a 2-1 lead, Britain required one victory to reach their first Davis Cup semi-final since 1981, but Fognini was in inspired form on the Naples clay as he cruised past Murray 6-3 6-3 6-4.
With the scores level at 2-2, it was left to the world number 161 Ward to claim an unlikely victory, but he went down in straight sets to Seppi 6-4 6-3 6-4.
World number 13 Fognini, who has won all three of his career ATP singles titles on clay in the last nine months, punished Murray`s sloppy serve throughout the match and he recorded a routine victory over the Wimbledon champion.
Seppi, world number 34, was rarely troubled in the decisive fifth rubber by his lowly-ranked opponent and, after taking the first two sets in simple fashion, he comfortably saw out the third to give Italy a 3-2 victory.
Italy will play Switzerland or Kazakhstan in September`s semi-finals, their first appearance at that stage since 1998.
Reuters
First Published: Sunday, April 6, 2014, 22:04
