Dutch beat Germany to reach first ever Davis Cup final

The Netherlands have reached their first ever Davis Cup final after winning both singles rubbers against Germany in the semi-finals in Malaga.

Botic van de Zandschulp beat Daniel Altmaier 6-4 6-7 (12-14) 6-3 to draw first blood before Tallon Griekspoor came from behind to dispatch Jan-Lennard Struff 6-7 (4-7) 7-5 6-4 on Friday.

The Netherlands, who ended Rafa Nadal's career in the last eight, will meet the winner of Saturday's second semi-final between defending champions Italy and Australia in Sunday's final.

The Aussies powered their way to the final with a shock 2-1 win over the USA, thanks to Thanasi Kokkinakis beating Ben Shelton 6-1 4-6 7-6 (16-14) and the victorious doubles pairing of Jordan Thompson and Matt Ebden.

Thompson and Ebden defeated Tommy Paul 6-4 6-4 and Shelton in the deciding rubber.

The Germans, who were looking for a fourth title in the men's team tournament and first since 1993, were without world No.2 Alexander Zverev.

They boasted the ATP Finals champions in doubles partners Kevin Krawietz and Tim Pütz, but the tie was wrapped up before they could have any influence.

World No.40 Griekspoor - the best ranked played in the tie -  boomed down the aces as the first set went with serve but Struff kept his cool in the tiebreak to prevail.

The Dutchman then grabbed the only break for 6-5 before securing the second set. He then raced into a 2-0 lead in the decider and held to send his nation through, hitting a huge 25 aces overall.

"It's unbelievable, we have been talking about this for two or three years," the 28-year-old Griekspoor said on court.

"We came here all the time and had unbelievably tough draws, losing to finalists and winners and this year we had Spain in the quarter-finals, but we believed in ourselves so much and we felt like it was possible."

In the first rubber, world No.80 Van de Zandschulp seized on one of his two break points in the first set to take charge after 88th-ranked Altmaier spurned his only opportunity.

The Dutchman dominated on forehand winners and second serves to jump a break ahead at 3-2 in the second set but Altmaier finally pounced when presented with a fourth break point to go level at 4-4.

It went the distance and Van de Zandschulp looked to be edging a long tiebreak, before his opponent surged back to take the match to a deciding set.

But the German failed to maintain his momentum and van de Zandschulp went 2-0 up in the final set after Altmaier's forehand error, only to slip back to 2-2.

The Dutchman then struck a perfect forehand winner for another break at 5-3 and served out the win as he survived a break point and double fault on his first of four matchpoints.

Captain Paul Haarhuis, who played in the Dutch Davis Cup team from 1990 to 2005, paid tribute to his players.

"For me it means I'm a finalist for the first time ever in the Davis Cup and to be part of this team who have played so well in the past five years," he said.

"Especially unique as we don't have the top-five player, the top-10 player, but it's a team effort and we have shown we can get here.

"The guys have a lot of confidence after this but we will have to come out there with big balls on Sunday and believe that it's our time."