After falling behind 2-1 in the first two days, Thailand fought back in the fourth rubber through Danai Udomchoke, who outclassed Taiwanese Lui Tai-wei 6-0 6-1 6-3, before Sonchat Ratiwatana wrapped up the final rubber with a victory over Lee Hsin-han 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 6-3.

Doubles specialist Sonchat deserved a big thumbs-up for the way he handled the pressure and pulling off the decisive rubber although he had not been prepared for the singles coming to Taipei.

"I just tried not to think about the match. In fact I was quite confident because I knew his weakness and I played according to the game plan,'' said Sonchat. "His backhand is not good, so I moved him off the court and hit the ball to his backhand," said Sonchat, who salvaged some pride after surprisingly losing the doubles with brother Sanchai to Chen Ti and Yi Chu-huan on Saturday.

"It was a good compensation. Winning is always better than losing,'' said Sonchat, who did an excellent job playing the decisive rubber for the first time.

"It's an indescribable feeling. I'm overwhelmed. It means a lot to me as it doesn't happen very often."

Thailand will play the next round in the away tie in April against Japan who moved past China. Thai No 2 Danai predicted that the tie against the second round opponents will be pretty demanding.

"It's going to be tough because they always play well at home,'' said Danai, who plays Vincent Spadea in the first round of the San Jose Open this week.

Trio into quarter-finals

Spain, Germany and France advanced to the quarter-finals yesterday with a match to spare.

Spain hold an insurmountable 3-1 lead over Switzerland. Fernando Verdasco earned the winning point for the Spanish team by beating Stephane Bohli 6-3 6-3 6-2 in the first reverse singles match.

Germany also lead Croatia 3-1, and France lead Romania by the same score in their best-of-five series. The inconsequential fifth matches were to be played later in the day.

Verdasco won easily for Spain, converting five-of-eight break points and taking advantage of Bohli's 33 unforced errors in Geneva. Bohli, ranked 278th, was filling in for the injured Stanislas Wawrinka.

Top-ranked Roger Federer ruled himself out of the match in November so he could concentrate on keeping his No 1 ranking.

Tommy Haas won the deciding point for Germany at home in Krefeld, beating Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-2 7-6 (7) 6-4. The eighth-ranked Croat had 18 aces in the match, including one on his second serve, but also made 42 unforced errors.

"I'm very proud of my performance. I'm happy I could get the third point,'' Haas said. "We weren't the favourites. This is very good. We have been very close during the past couple of years but couldn't advance.''

Richard Gasquet won France's third point at Clermont-Ferrand, beating Romania's Andrei Pavel 6-3 6-2 7-5.

In Minsk, Sweden made it through to the Davis Cup quarter-finals when Robin Soderling overcame Max Mirnyi in a five-set marathon to claim an uncatchable 3-1 lead. Soderling beat the Belarussian 6-7 (8/10) 7-5 6-7 (8/10) 7-6 (7/3) 6-3.

The Nation

TAIPEI