Madagascar Joins Ghana in Davis Cup Semi-Finals

Madagascar Friday joined Ghana in the semi-finals of the Davis Cup Euro-Africa Zone Group III as fellow Africans Kenya and hosts Botswana fell by the wayside.

In their do or die pool A duel against Georgia which was also in the race for a semi-final slot, Madagascar won 2-1 to reach the least four.

They started well when Donne Dubert Radison overcame Georgian Mikhail Chaduneli in the opening three sets for a 3-0 win in the first singles match. Radison won 4-0, 4-2 and 4-2.

However, his compatriot Germain Rasolondrazana fell 4-1 to Irakli Ushangishvili after being outclassed 4-0, 5-4, 4-0 and 4-1.

Facing certain elimination the Madagascan duo of Jean Marc Randiamanalima and Rasolondrazana stepped up their performance in the doubles and made short work of Ushangishvili and Mikhail Chokeli 3-0 after winning the first three sets 4-0, 4-1 and 5-4.

In other matches Ghana beat pool B rivals Lithuania 2-1 to maintain a 100 percent record and emerge tops ahead of the Baltic state. Iceland defeated hosts Botswana by a similar score-line to finish third.

In pool A, Latvia the only other undefeated nation in the tournament finished first ahead of Madagascar while Georgia were third against pointless Kenya.

For the semis scheduled for Saturday, the Madagascans will now pit their wits against fellow Africans Ghana while the two former Soviet Republics Latvia and Lithuania square up for the other semi-final spot.

In the play-offs for position 5-8, Georgia meets Botswana, which is still looking for their first point while Kenya confronts Iceland.

The winners of the two duels then meet to decide the final placing, which will see the last two sides relegated to Group IV, while the top two will be promoted to Group II.