Tennis-Horansky keeps Slovakia alive against Italy for Davis Cup Finals spot

(Reuters) - Slovakia's Filip Horansky stunned Italy's world number 21 Lorenzo Sonego 7-6(2) 6-3 to level their qualifying tie on Friday for a place in the Davis Cup Finals later this year.

The 12 winning teams from the home-and-away qualifiers on Friday and Saturday will join Croatia, who secured automatic qualification for the 2022 Finals as last year's finalists, and wild cards Serbia and Britain.

Russia's title defence is uncertain after governing body International Tennis Federation (ITF) suspended the memberships of Russia and Belarus and withdrew their entries from team competitions following the invasion of Ukraine.

The 29-year-old Horansky, ranked 203rd in the world, defeated Sonego in an hour 46 minutes in Bratislava to cancel out Jannik Sinner's hard-fought 6-4 4-6 6-4 win over Norbert Gombos earlier.

"My feelings are amazing," Horansky said. "To play in front of the home crowd, to win such a tough game, it's the best feeling a player can have. I'm surprised how I played."

Playing for the first time since he was kicked out of the ATP event in Acapulco for smashing his racket repeatedly against the umpire's chair, world number three Alexander Zverev beat Brazil's Thiago Seyboth Wild 6-4 6-2 to give Germany a 1-0 lead.

Germany failed to build on Zverev's win, however, with Thiago Monteiro recording a 6-3 1-6 6-3 win over Jan-Lennard Struff to make it all square in the tie.

Canada, who are without top-20 players Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov, will require a stunning turnaround to win their tie against the Netherlands.

Botic Van de Zandschulp beat Alexis Galarneau 7-5 7-6(9) to put the Netherlands in front before Tallon Griekspoor eased past Steven Diez 6-4 6-4 to give his country a commanding 2-0