Croatia through

ByEurosport

Published 11/02/2006 at 17:31 GMT

Title holder Croatia are through to the Davis Cup quarter-finals after a thrilling five-set doubles rubber on Saturday against Austria. Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic came back from two sets down to beat Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer 3-6 3-6 6-4 6-4 8-6

"We were definitely the stronger team and knew we could win it," captain Ljubicic told reporters at the end of the four-hour doubles match.

"We did not play too well in the first two sets but then we found our rhythm. Mario and I have not played together as oftenas the two Austrians have."

TENNIS-2006-davis cup-croatia-doublesmatch-ljubicic-ancic

Image credit: Reuters

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Ljubicic knew he had to hang in there and rely on his game. "I am number five in the world so I expect to play well. We made some mistakes and it got difficult but we hung in and won"

TWO LEFT-HANDERS

Austria's captain Thomas Muster explained why he replaced doubles nominee Alexander Peya with Melzer: "I knew the Croats would not like playing against two left-handers and Melzer was hot to make up for his lost singles match."

NEXT UP: ARGENTINA

Croatia now faces Argentina in the quarter finals after David Nalbandian and Agustin Calleri defeated Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman and Simon Aspelin 62 76(4) 26 64 in the doubles match today to take the 3-0 lead.

The Argentinian duo took advantage of the Swede's 13 double faults today in order to secure their place in the finals.

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