BRISBANE, Australia - Mark Woodforde and Sandon Stolle rallied from behind Saturday to win the doubles and give defending champion Australia a spot in the Davis Cup final.
Woodforde, who won the Wimbledon doubles with Todd Woodbridge, and Stolle beat Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten and Jaime Oncins 6-7 (3), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, giving Australia a 3-0 lead.
Australia, which won its 27th Davis Cup by defeating France in the final last year, completed its 5-0 victory Sunday in the reverse singles.
Lleyton Hewitt beat Andre Sa 6-4, 6-1 in the first match, and Wimbledon finalist Pat Rafter defeated Fernando Meligeni 6-3, 6-4 in the second.
Australia will meet the winner of next weekend's semifinal between Spain and the United States, with the venue depending on the outcome in Spain.
Australian captain John Newcombe said he expects Spain to defeat an undermanned U.S. lineup to set up an Australia-Spain final Dec. 8-10 in Barcelona, Spain. If the United States wins, the final will be in Melbourne.
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Qualifying Round
Ecuador 2, Britain 1
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) - Brothers Nicolas and Giovanni Lapentti of Ecuador teamed Saturday to defeat Britain's Tim Henman and Arvind Parmar and give the South Americans a 2-1 lead in their Davis Cup World Group qualifier.
The Ecuadorans, facing Britain without the injured Greg Rusedski, won 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 and took a giant step toward reaching next season's 16-team World Group.
Parmar, filling in for Rusedski, will face Luis Morejon in Sunday's reverse singles, while Henman will take on Nicolas Lapentti in the best-of-five tie.
Rusedski, who dropped a five-set singles match to Nicolas Lapentti on Friday, withdrew from the tie Saturday with an injured right foot. It is the same foot Rusedski had surgery on seven months ago.
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Netherlands 3, Uzbekistan 0
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan (AP) - Sjeng Schalken and Paul Haarhuis of the Netherlands defeated Oleg Ogorodov and Dmitry Tomashevic of Uzbekistan in doubles play Saturday to give the Dutch an insurmountable 3-0 lead in their best-of-five Davis Cup World Group qualifying round.
Schalken and Haarhuis downed the Uzbekitan pair 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (0).
With the victory, the Netherlands will advance to the 2001 Davis Cup World Group.
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Romania 2, Zimbabwe 1
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) - Andrei Pavel and Gabriel Trifu won Saturday's doubles to give Romania a 2-1 lead over Zimbabwe in a Davis Cup World Group qualifying tie.
The Romanian pair defeated Zimbabwe's Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (2).
In Sunday's reverse singles, Pavel will play Zimbabwe's No. 1 Byron Black and Razvan Sabau will play Ullyett.
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