Japan beats China 3-0 in Davis Cup
(AP)
Updated: 2006-02-12 09:35

TOKYO (AP) _ Satoshi Iwabuchi and Toshihide Matsui fended off China's Yu Xinyuan and Zeng Shaoxuan in the doubles Saturday to book Japan a place in the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group second round.

The Japanese duo won 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 at Namihaya Dome in Osaka to extend Japan's overall lead to 3-0 over China. The victory guarantees Japan a berth in the second round for the first time in two years.

Japan, which has won five the last six Davis cup matches against China, will face either Uzbekistan or Thailand in the next round starting on April 7.

On Friday, Gouichi Motomura and Go Soeda each won their opening singles matches against Wang Yu Jr. and Sun Peng. Soeda takes on Wang in Sunday's dead rubber while Motomura faces Sun.