Russia storm past Sweden
into semis

Marat Safin and Yevgeny Kafelnikov steered Russia into the Davis Cup semi-finals on Saturday, clinching the crunch doubles match against Sweden to stretch into a winning 3-0 lead.

Safin and Kafelnikov, who both won their singles matches on Friday, beat Thomas Johansson and Jonas Bjorkman 3-6, 7-6, 6-7, 7-5, 6-3 in a hard-fought match that at times pitted sheer power against technical prowess.

The thrilling match swung from one team to the other, in sometimes scrappy play, with the Russians playing more aggressively as the match progressed and backed by a vocal home crowd.

The physically smaller Swedish team played a neat and impressive team game, but ultimately did not have the power to fend off the hard-hitting Russians.

Russia will play either Argentina or Croatia for a place in the 2002 Davis Cup final.