STRASBOURG, France — Hometown hero Paul-Henri Mathieu held his nerve to beat Sweden’s Thomas Johansson 6-1, 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4 and lead France into the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup yesterday.

The 23-year-old Mathieu, who famously choked in the final against Russia in 2002 where he squandered a two-set lead in the decisive rubber against Mikhail Youzhny, secured a quarterfinal place for France in July — against Russia again.

The form of Mathieu was in stark contrast to that of Sebastien Grosjean who had earlier yesterday suffered his second setback of the tie losing 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 to Johansson.

Doubles pair Arnaud Clement and Mickael Llodra of France were surprise 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4 winners against Bjorkman, ranked No. 1 in the world in doubles, and Aspelin, also a doubles specialist.

In Moscow, Australian Open champion Marat Safin endured a trademark emotional roller-coaster ride before leading Russia into the Davis Cup quarterfinals and a rematch against France, the team they beat to win their only title three years ago. Safin beat Fernando Gonzalez 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4 in just four minutes short of four hours at Moscow’s Olympic Stadium to give his country an unassailable 3-1 lead over Chile.

Nikolay Davydenko then rounded off the World Group first round victory with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Paul Capdeville in the dead rubber.

Elsewhere, Slovakia completed a 4-1 rout of defending champions Spain to set up a last eight clash with the Netherlands who saw off a Roger Federer-less Switzerland 3-2.

Australia and Argentina also completed 5-0 whitewashes of Austria and the Czech Republic respectively and they will meet in a Sydney quarterfinal while the final last eight tie will be between Romania, who edged Belarus 3-2, and either the United States or Croatia.

The Croatians lead that tie 2-1 in Los Angeles ahead of the reverse singles later.

In Fribourg, world No. 1 Federer’s decision to skip the Davis Cup first round came back to haunt Switzerland when they were beaten by the Netherlands.

Trailing 2-1 overnight, it was left to Dutch veteran Sjeng Schalken to give his side an unassailable 3-1 lead and a place in the quarterfinals but at least Swiss teenager Stanislas Wawrinka can take credit from the way he played.

The former French Open junior champion could even consider himself unlucky to have lost the rubber after he had led 4-1 in the final set. But Schalken’s greater experience told when he pulled off a 1-6, 6-2, 6-4, 2-6, 9-7 win to put his side into the last eight.

In Brasov, Andre Pavel and Victor Hanescu both won yesterday’s reverse singles to hand Romania a 3-2 win over Belarus.

Trailing 2-1 overnight, Pavel beat Max Mirnyi 6-1, 7-6 (7-0), 4-6, 6-3 to level the first round tie before Hanescu edged Vladimir Voltchkov 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 7-6 (8 6) in 2hr 36min.

In Los Angeles, Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic handed Bob and Mike Bryan their first Davis Cup doubles defeat to give Croatia a commanding 2-1 lead over the United States on Saturday.

Ljubicic and Ancic downed the Bryan brothers 3-6, 7-6 (10-8), 6-4, 6-4 to put the United States, champions 31 times, on the brink of elimination.

In Bratislava, Slovakia, who had already wrapped up their tie on Saturday, finished off Spain 4-1 with Michal Mertinak beating Feliciano Lopez 6-0, 6-7 (3 7), 6-4 before Fernando Verdasco gained a late consolation beating rookie Kamil Capkovic 6-2, 6-2.

Australia completed a 5-0 whitewash over Austria in Sydney and immediately began planning for a tough quarterfinal clash with Argentina in July.

With the tie already decided in Australia’s favor on Saturday, Davis Cup debutant Chris Guccione completed the rout with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Alexander Peya in the reverse singles dead rubber, after Todd Woodbridge beat Marco Mirnegg 6-3, 4-6, 7-5.

In Buenos Aires, Guillermo Coria beat Jan Hernych 6-3, 6-0 and Agustin Calleri saw off Tomas Zib 6-2, 6-4 as Argentina completed their 5-0 trouncing of the Czech Republic.