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The Netherlands reached the final of the Davis Cup for the first time as Tallon Griekspoor fought back to win his singles match and clinch a 2-0 victory against Germany.
Botic van de Zandschulp, who beat Rafael Nadal in the final match of the Spaniard’s career on Tuesday, put the Dutch team 1-0 up on Friday when he defeated Daniel Altmaier in the first singles match.
The world number 80 needed 10 match points to wrap up a tense 6-4 6-7 (12-14) 6-3 win.
Griekspoor stopped the best-of-three tie from going to a deciding doubles as he surged back from a set down to overcome Jan-Lennard Struff 6-7 (4-7) 7-5 6-4.
“We believed in ourselves so much, we always felt this was possible so to do it now feels unbelievable,” said Griekspoor.
The Netherlands will face defending champions Italy – led by world number one Jannik Sinner – or Australia in Sunday’s final.
“It’s more unique that we do it because we don’t have that top-five player, we don’t have that top-10 player, we don’t have that top-15 player – but it’s a team effort,” Netherlands captain Paul Haarhuis said.
“We have to believe in ourselves, whoever is against us, that we can do it. It’s our time this year. We’re here and we’re going to make it count.”
Three-time winners Germany were aiming to reach the final for the first time since they last won the title in 1993.
They were without world number two Alexander Zverev, who said last month that he would miss the Davis Cup Finals in order to “recover and be back at 100%” for the 2025 season.