(adds French quotes )
SIBIU, Romania, Feb 9 - Arnaud Clement and Michael
Llorda guided France into Davis Cup quarter-finals following a
6-3 6-4 6-7 3-6 6-2 doubles win over Romania on Saturday.
The four-hour victory over Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau
gave France an unbeatable 3-0 lead and secured a last-eight
showdown with holders United States in April.
"Playing the United States is a magnificent challenge. On
paper, they're better than we are. They're the best team in the
world with Andy Roddick, James Blake and the Bryan brothers,"
said French captain Guy Forget.
After taking the first set with ease, Clement and Llodra
snapped up the second after the forward charging Romanians were
duped by a lucky netcord.
Mergea and Tecau displayed their battling skills when they
saved two match points in the third set before securing it 8-6
in the tiebreak.
France were further frustrated when they also dropped the
fourth set but charged back in the decider to seal the tie.
With Clement and Llodra avenging their 2007 first-round
defeat by the same Romanian duo on Saturday, the nine-times
champions wrapped up the tie with a day to spare.
"We survived a scare. After wasting two match points, we
feared the match would go the other way," said Llodra.
Forget added: "It could have been an easy weekend but that
doubles match made it a bit complicated. It made me mad to see
it go to a fifth set. They scared me and all the staff."
France also extended their head-to-head record to 8-1.
"Overall, we played better than last year but the French are
top players and Tsonga was extraordinary," Romania captain
Florin Segarceanu told reporters.
"We did everything we could."
Australian Open finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and world number
seven Richard Gasquet won their opening singles on Friday.
Andrei Pavel and Victor Hanescu will be hoping to restore at
least some pride for the Romanians in Sunday's dead reverse
singles.
(Reporting by Marius Zaharia; additional reporting by Eric
Salliot, editing by Pritha Sarkar)