Spain, without their two stars, world No. 1 Carlos Alcaras and third-placed Rafael Nadal, beat Serbia, deprived of the services of their star Novak Djokovic, 3-0 in the first round of the second set of the Davis Cup tennis tournament. While Italy beat 2021 season runners-up Croatia by the same score.

Serbia, who reached the semi-finals of the last draw, fought back a lot in singles and lost hard as Diri lost to Ramos-Vinolas 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 5-7, and Kicmanovic against Bautista-Aguta 6- 7 (5-7) and 6-7 (5-7) before the Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Pedro Martins finished the doubles against Nikola Kacic and Dusan Lajovic 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-2.

Spain led the group against Canada, who beat South Korea 2-1 on Tuesday.

“This tournament was the best tennis experience of my life,” said Bautista Agut.

“Today I really enjoyed playing in front of the Spanish fans in Valencia, not far from my hometown. I’m tired because it was a tough match and we still have a lot of work to do this week.”

In the first group in Bologna, Italy, missing Yannick Şener, finished 11th in the world, beating last edition runners-up Croatia 3-0.

Lorenzo Mozetti beat Borna Goyo 6-4, 6-2, Matteo Berrettini beat Borna Coric 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 6-1, Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini beat Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-3).

Italy captured first place in the group from Sweden, who opened the competition on Tuesday with a 2-1 win over Argentina.

In the third in Hamburg, Germany, whose star Alexander Zverev, fifth in the world, is missing, scored a 2-1 victory over France.

Jan-Lennard Struff gave Germany the lead by beating Benjamin Ponzi 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 and Adrian Mannarino equalized by beating Oscar Otte 6-4, 6-3, but Tim Peewits and Kevin Kravitz won the doubles match. against Nicolas Mahu and Arthur Rinderknech 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7-1).

Australia beat Belgium 3-0 on Tuesday in the same group.

In the fourth in Glasgow, the US beat Great Britain 2-1.

The United States moved forward as Tommy Powell defeated Dan Evans 6-4 4-6 6-4, Britain responded with a Cameron Nouri victory over Taylor Fritz 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5, but the last word was behind the American pair Rajiv Ram and Jack Sock, who beat Andy Murray and Joe Salisbury 5-7, 6-4, 7-5.

“We played against one of the biggest legends of the game, playing in his country,” Sok said of meeting Murray.

“It was an incendiary atmosphere. We managed to excel and win,” he added.

Ram said it was not easy for him to be on the other side of the net from his regular Salisbury teammate.

He added, “It’s difficult, we’ve been playing together for four years. But today we played against each other and competed as best we could. Playing for our country is a huge deal for us.”

The United States followed the Netherlands, who beat Kazakhstan by the same scoreline on Tuesday.

The first and second places in the groups will qualify for the play-offs (quarter, semi-final and final), which will be held in Malaga, Spain, from 22 to 27 November.

To avoid complex calculations to determine the best runner-up, the number of teams competing in the group stage has been reduced from 18 last edition to 16 this year, divided into four groups.