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I thought he did a pretty good job on him."
PARIS -- Setting their sights on a first Davis Cup win since 2001, the French players are finding extra motivation in the daunting task awaiting them. Greedy Williams Browns Jersey . France earned its place in the final by ending the two-year dominance of Czech Republic in the team competition with a 4-1 win over the defending champions on clay at Roland Garros. They now need to overcome Roger Federers Switzerland. The 17-time Grand Slam champion put his country back in the final for the first time in 22 years by beating Fabio Fognini of Italy in the opening reverse singles Sunday for a winning 3-1 lead in their semifinal. The Davis Cup is the only major trophy still missing from Federers collection. "Federer is a monument of tennis, this is a dream final," said Richard Gasquet, Frances standout player of the weekend. Gael Monfils wrapped up victory for France with a 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 defeat of Lukas Rosol on Sunday after Jiri Vesely salvaged some pride for the Czechs by beating Julien Benneteau 6-4, 6-3 in a consolation win in the first reverse singles. "There is no need for motivation when you are in the final, but hosting Federer adds an extra something to a sumptuous final," Benneteau said. France booked its place in the final on Saturday when Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gasquet won the doubles to give the hosts an unassailable 3-0 lead. Monfils was initially set to play the opening singles but was replaced by Gasquet by France captain Arnaud Clement after failing to recover from jet lag following his quarterfinalist placing at the U.S. Open last week. Clements decision paid dividends as Gasquet put France on the right track with a straight sets victory against the sixth-ranked Tomas Berdych before Tsonga extended his teams lead to 2-0 by beating Rosol. "Everybody speaks about a dream final against Switzerland, but for me the dream is just that France will be there," Clement said. "With Federer and Stan Wawrinka, Its obviously a big contest but the important thing is that we are in the final." Switzerland has never won the competition and lost its only final in 1992 against the United States. After hosting the Czechs at Roland Garros, the French are trying to finalize a deal for the tie to be staged in a bigger venue, with the northern city of Lille being touted as the likely host. Clement said he will have lengthy discussions with his players before deciding on the surface, but Tsonga played down the importance of the decision. "It wont have a big impact on the result," said Tsonga. "All the players that will be involved are capable of playing well on all surfaces." Austin Seibert Jersey . Next years tournament is also within sight for Bosnia-Herzegovina, which has never played in a World Cup, but Cristiano Ronaldo looks destined for the playoffs with Portugal after a night when the qualifying picture in the nine groups became much clearer. Jarvis Landry Jersey . Vincent Lamar Carter is no longer the lean, athletic dynamo who dazzled Raptors fans with eye-popping dunks that posterized even the leagues best defenders.(SportsNetwork.com) - The Toronto Raptors will look to clinch a playoff spot for the first time since 2008 when they host the Boston Celtics tonight at the Air Canada Centre in the back end of a home and home. After picking up a rare win in Boston, the Toronto Raptors will be back on familiar ground when they host the Celtics Friday from Air Canada Centre. Terrence Ross led the Raptors with 24 points in a 99-90 triumph, while Kyle Lowry continued his recent tear with 23 and nine rebounds. DeMar DeRozan rounded out the 20-point scorers with exactly that many and Jonas Valanciunas ended with 15 points and 14 rebounds for Toronto, which has alternated results in the last six games. The Raptors broke an 11-game losing streak in Boston, last winning there on Jan. 23, 2008. "That was a character test for us," said Toronto head coach Dwane Casey. "I think this team has a lot of character. Situations were not there yet, but again its not from a lack of fight and togetherness." Casey needs three wins to reach 100 victories with the team. The Raptors last posted 40 total wins in a season in 2009-10 (40-42) and the fastest team to reach 40 wins was the 1999-00 squad after 70 games. The current unit needed 71 games to reach the mark. Lowry has scored 19 or more points in each of the last 11 games, averaging 22.5 points in that span. DeRozan is averaging more than 20 points per game against Atlantic Division foes. Toronto leads the division by 2 1/2 games ahead of Brooklyn and is even with Chicago for the third spot in the Easterrn Conference. Austin Corbett Youth Jersey. Toronto is 21-14 north of the border this season. Boston has lost two in a row and nine of its last 12 games, and was paced by Jared Sullingers 26 points (19 in fourth quarter) and eight rebounds on Wednesday. "Sully (Sullinger) got hot and I thought even though we were really undersized we played pretty well in that time," said Boston head coach Brad Stevens. Avery Bradley had 16 points, Rajon Rondo chipped in nine and 15 assists and Chris Johnson added 13 points off the bench. The Celtics shot 41 percent from the floor and had a 51-7 advantage from their reserves. The Celtics will try to stop an eight-game road losing streak in Toronto and have an 8-26 mark as the visitor. Their previous road win was Feb. 10 against the Milwaukee Bucks. Celtics forward Jeff Green had six points in 20 minutes on Wednesday and is bothered by a stiff neck. Green hopes to play against the Raptors. Rondo needed stitches to close a cut on his forehead and returned to the game to cover Raptors All-Star DeRozan. "I think it obviously says a lot. He wants to play and not only, I think the most important part about it is he came back in and guarded DeRozan (DeMar)," Celtics coach Brad Stevens said of Rondo. "He went after it and I thought he did a pretty good job on him." Toronto is 2-1 against the Celtics this season, but the latter has prevailed in four of the last seven meetings between the teams. Boston has lost two straight, four of five and five of its last seven trips to Canada. ' ' '
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Activity: May 25 '20
