Netherlands advances to its 1st Davis Cup title match, sweeping Germany

The last man to face, and beat, Rafael Nadal in professional tennis, 80th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp, converted his 10th match point Friday to finally close out a 6-4, 6-7 (12), 6-3 victory over Daniel Altmaier and help the Netherlands reach its first Davis Cup final by sweeping Germany.

Tallon Griekspoor, who is ranked 40th, sealed the 2-0 win for the Dutch in the best-of-three-match semifinal by hitting 25 aces and coming back to defeat Jan-Lennard Struff 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-4. When it ended, appropriately, on an ace, Griekspoor shut his eyes, dropped to his knees and spread his arms wide.

"We have been talking about this for two, three years," Griekspoor said. "We believed in ourselves so much. We always felt like this was possible. To do it now feels unbelievable."

The other semifinal is Saturday, with No. 1-ranked Jannik Sinner and defending champion Italy taking on Australia in Malaga, Spain. The championship will be decided Sunday.

"We don't have that top-five player. We don't that top-10 player. We don't have that top-15 player," Dutch captain Paul Harhuuis said. "But it's a team effort. So proud of these guys."

In Friday's opener, van de Zandschulp was up a set and just a point away from leading 5-2 in the second when Altmaier began playing more aggressively and interacting more with the German fans, yelling and throwing uppercuts or raising his arms after key points. In the tiebreaker, Altmaier managed to save five match points before converting his own fourth set point to extend the contest.

But van de Zandschulp, who upset four-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz at the U.S. Open, quickly moved out front in the final set, even if he eventually needed five more match points in the last game before serving