PARIS: Belgium secured a controversial victory in Davis Cup qualifying when Chile’s Cristian Garin refused to continue in the decisive rubber after being painfully knocked down by his opponent, Zizou Bergs, on Sunday.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Spain made light of the absence of Carlos Alcaraz as they swept past Switzerland.

France also advanced and Hungary survived a second-day fightback by Canada.

In Hasselt, after Belgium won the day’s opening doubles to lead 2-1, Bergs then faced Garin in the first reverse singles.

After holding serve in a marathon 11th game in the third set, an excited Bergs galloped round the court in celebration and raced past the net towards his chair, colliding with Garin and sending him flying.

“It’s truly unintentional,” Bergs said. “I wanted to go fast to the bench, but I made a completely wrong decision to not wait for the opponent.”

An independent doctor ruled Garin was fit to continue and serve to stay in the match, but he refused. Bergs was awarded the deciding game to win 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.

“It feels really bad to end this way,” Bergs told the Davis Cup website. “It’s obviously not what you want, to hurt an opponent.”

Bergs said he also apologised to Chile captain Nicolas Massu.

“Terrible situation,” said Massu. “We’re here to play tennis, to defend our country. Garin is the player hit in the eye, who couldn’t continue and now we’re out.”

An ITF spokesperson said: “We understand the emotions attached to this unusual incident, but the final decision was made after consideration of all the facts and unique circumstances around it.”

Belgium will face Australia in the second round.

In Biel, Switzerland, Pedro Martinez and Jaume Munar carved out a hard-fought 6-4, 7-5 win over Dominic Stricker and Marc-Andrea Huesler in the doubles to put Spain 3-0 up.

They head to Denmark for the second qualifying round in September.

France also booked their place in the next phase as Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Benjamin Bonzi came from behind to beat the Brazilian pair of Rafael Matos and Marcelo Melo 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in Orleans for a 3-0 lead and book a trip to Croatia in September.

In Montreal, Marton Fucsovics survived a long first set tie-break to beat Alexis Galarneau 7-6(10/8), 6-4, ending a Canadian fightback and send Hungary through 3-2.

Canada started the day 2-0 down but levelled as Liam Draxl and Vasek Pospisil beat Peter Fajta and Mate Valkusz 7-6(7/2), 6-4 in the doubles and Gabriel Diallo crushed Fabian Maroszan 6-1, 6-3 in the first of the reverse singles.

Jannik Sinner’s Italy are the two-time defending champions having won the event in 2023 and last year.

As a result, Italy get a free pass to the finals in Bologna in November.

The defending champions are taking over hosting duties from Malaga.

The 2024 runners-up the Netherlands get a bye to the second round where they will face Argentina.

The seven winners of the second round will join Italy in the eight-team finals.

Second qualifying round fixtures (Sept 12-14): Netherlands v Argentina, Australia v Belgium, Hungary v Austria, Japan v Germany, USA v Czech Republic, Spain v Denmark, Croatia v France.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2025