Tsonga and Llodra made easy work of Feliciano Lopez and
Fernando Verdasco, converting a break point on their very first chance and
never looking back to secure a 6-1, 6-2, 6-0 victory in 1 hour, 39 minutes at
Cordoba's bullring.
While Spain was on the receiving end of a drubbing Saturday,
the four-time champion can still clinch its place in the final on Sunday when
Rafael Nadal is scheduled to face Gilles Simon in reverse singles on the
outdoor clay.
Argentina led Serbia 2-0 after Friday's singles in the other
semifinal.
France captain Guy Forget may opt to play Tsonga against
Nadal since teams can make a change up to one hour before matches. Tsonga is
the only French player with repeated wins over Nadal having won twice in seven
matchups, although the pair has never met on clay.
Nadal hasn't lost a singles Davis Cup rubber since losing on
his debut in 2004, racking up a 17-1 record that includes 13-0 on clay. The
six-time French Open champion has lost only five of his last 100 matches on
clay.
While France was routed in singles on Friday, a refreshed
Tsonga provided the perfect compliment to French doubles specialist Llodra as
they overwhelmed the hosts.
Both Lopez and Verdasco struggled with their serve
throughout and the French shrugged off the 38 degrees Celsius (100 degrees
Fahrenheit) temperatures for seven break points with none for Spain.
The Spaniards hit just 19 winners to the visitors' 41, and
the 10th-ranked Tsonga closed out the rout as he fired down the pair's ninth
ace of the day.
In the other reverse singles match scheduled for Sunday,
David Ferrer is scheduled to play Richard Gasquet.
In Belgrade, Serbia kept alive their hopes of retaining the
Davis Cup when Nenad Zimonjic and Viktor Troicki beat Juan Monaco and Juan
Ignacio Chela 7-6 6-4 6-2 on Saturday to leave them trailing 2-1 going into
Sunday's singles.
The hosts will now be hoping world No.1 Novak Djokovic, who
did not play in Friday's singles, can inspire a remarkable turnaround in the
semi-final in the noisy Belgrade Arena which staged Serbia's triumph against
France last year.
Djokovic, who claimed the US Open title on Monday, pulled
out of his opening match against David Nalbandian with lower back and rib pain
but is expected to be fit for Sunday's opening clash with Juan Martin Del Potro.
Games went with serve without a break point in a tight first
set on Saturday, before a pair of volleys from Troicki settled the tiebreak and
put the Serbs ahead.
Zimonjic and Troicki broke in the seventh game of the third
set and sealed victory in two hours and nine minutes.
