Tennis-France, United States secure Davis Cup Finals spots

(Reuters) - France and the United States breezed into the Davis Cup Finals with dominant wins on Saturday, while Spain survived an attempted comeback from Romania to win their qualifying tie.

France, who were 2-0 up courtesy of Arthur Rinderknech and Adrian Mannarino, faced little resistance from Ecuador as wins for Benjamin Bonzi and the doubles pair of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicholas Mahut secured victory for the 10-times champions.

"It's never easy to play a team where you're the favourite, but we respected our opponents a lot and that's why we managed to win," Herbert said.

In their home tie in Reno, Nevada, Jack Sock and Rajeev Ram beat Colombia's Juan-Sebastian Cabal and Nicolas Barrientos 6-3, 6-4 in their doubles clash to give the U.S. a 3-0 win in their best-of-five qualifier.

"I thought we came out with a ton of energy, thought we gelled really well," Sock told a news conference. "We got up early in each set which definitely helps a lot. The 4-all, 5-all games would have been stressful."

Roberto Bautista Agut won his second singles rubber to help Spain, who are without 21-times major winner Rafa Nadal, clinch their tie against Romania and seal a place in the Finals.

Romania, who were trailing 2-0 after two defeats on the opening day, gave themselves a glimmer of hope when doubles pair Marius Copil and Horia Tecau won to make it 2-1.

Video: Ronnie O'Sullivan eases past Kyren Wilson to win sixth World Snooker Championship (The Independent)

Moment: ‘I never, ever, said I was going to stop’ – Hamilton on his retirement

Red Bull launches new 2022 F1 season car

Conte: ‘Performance was good’ as Spurs drop further

Klopp ‘delighted’ after Liverpool’s 1-0 win at bottom-of-the-table Burnley

Russian figure skater Kamila