Paradorn, starting the match after eight losses from eight matches on clay this season, failed to convert any of his five break point opportunities and lost to the 115th-ranked Alexander Waske 6-4 7-5 7-6 (14-12) after two hours and 28 minutes.

Thailand were 2-1 down by Saturday.

Waske, who hit 18 aces to only seven from the Thai, was a substitute for German No 1 Tommy Haas, who suffered a leg injury during the first rubber against Danai Udomchoke on Friday.

Paradorn's defeat gave the German team a victory in the play-offs tie regardless of the result of the fifth rubber in which Florian Mayer ousted Thai doubles player Sanchai Ratiwatana 6-1 6-3 in only 45 minutes. Sanchai replaced Danai.

Germany beat Thailand 4-1 and will return to the elite World Group next year. Thailand has played in the World Group Play-offs four times over the past five years, but has yet to move beyond this stage after losses to England in 2002, the Czech Republic in 2003 and Russia in 2004.

Assistant team supervisor Sombat Eummongkol said even though Paradorn lost two matches, he tried his best.

"He was playing really great but clay is not his favourite surface. He tried his best out there," said Sombat, a former Davis Cup player.

"We lost the tie but we did a good job. At least we won a point."

The Thai team is scheduled to arrive in Bangkok at 1.30pm today.

Meanwhile, Dmitry Tursunov put Russia into the Davis Cup final after holding off Andy Roddick 6-3 6-4 5-7 3-6 17-15 yesterday and giving his country a 3-1 lead over the United States.

James Blake was to face Marat Safin in a meaningless final match.

The Russians will host Argentina in December in their first Davis Cup final since they

beat France in 2002 for their only title.

Roddick struggled from the start on the clay court at the Olympic Stadium, losing his first service game.

He lost it again in the second game in the second set, but broke back in the eighth game.

Roddick won only three points in his opponent's first five service games in the third set, but he held serve and broke the Russian at 6-5 to avoid a tiebreaker and stay in the match.

As Roddick gained confidence and Tursunov seemed to falter, they traded service wins until the Russian netted an easy forehand and Roddick converted his third break point with a backhand volley to take a 5-3 lead.

In the 32-game final set, both players survived scares and held serve until Tursunov netted an easy forehand to go down 30-40 in the 11th game. He saved one break point, but hit two shots wide at deuce.

Tursunov then broke back to even it at 6-6 when Roddick sent a return wide after saving one break point.

The two then traded service wins until Roddick netted a forehand slice to give Tursunov his fourth match point. The Russian then sent a backhand down the line for the victory.

Tursunov, who was knocked out of the US Open in the third round and struggled with his backhand in Saturday's doubles, was an unexpected pick for Russia coach Shamil Tarpishchev.

Nikolay Davydenko is Russia's best clay court player, but he withdrew from the Chinese Open last weekend with dizziness, and Tarpishchev instead picked Safin to play Roddick in the opening singles.

Safin beat Roddick 6-4 6-3 7-6 (5) and Youzhny beat Blake 7-5 1-6 6-1 7-5 on Friday, putting the US squad down 2-0. The last time the US rallied from a 2-0 Davis Cup deficit was in 1934 against Australia.

On Saturday, Bob and Mike Bryan overcame Youzhny and Tursunov with little trouble, reviving US hopes with a commanding 6-3 6-4 6-2 win.

The semi-final series was played at the same venue where Pete Sampras won all three of his matches on clay in 1995 to help the United States capture their 31st Davis Cup title.

Russia, which had never beaten the United States, is unbeaten at home since losing that final.

The US has come back from a 2-1 deficit five times - including twice in 2000, when Andre Agassi and Chris Woodruff won their reverse singles in the first round against Zimbabwe, and Pete Sampras clinched against the Czech Republic in the next round after Agassi made it 2-2.

Argentina beat Australia in the other semi-final series this year.