second to end the inning. "He keeps the ball off the barrel of the ba

NAPLES, Italy -- Italy won both singles matches against Britain in straight sets on Sunday to reach the Davis Cup semifinals for the first time in 16 years. Fabio Fognini pulled off a surprise 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 victory over two-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray to level the best-of-five quarterfinal at 2-2 before Andreas Seppi defeated James Ward 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in the decisive match. "A great feat, a great success for all Italian tennis," Italy captain Corrado Barazzutti said. "It was time we got back to the semifinals. Its credit to everyone, to a team which has a great character. It was a victory of character." Britain was looking to reach the semifinals for the first time since 1981 but Fognini was in commanding form to end Murrays run of 19 consecutive singles victories in the competition. Seppi rarely struggled against a player ranked 127 places below him and comfortably served out for the match. Italy will play Switzerland in Septembers semifinal. "Today I just played better than Andy and thats tennis," Fognini said. "I was annoyed yesterday after the doubles. This was a very important victory, its certainly my best match in Davis Cup. I just stayed focused on my game and I managed to win." Fognini triumphed in the match between the countries top players, despite dropping his serve in the first game. The 13th-ranked Fognini managed to save two break points but double-faulted to hand Murray the opening game. Fognini had the opportunity to break straight back but hit long and then netted on another break point as Murray went on to take a 2-0 lead. In a typically lively Davis Cup atmosphere, British fans chanted "Fabio, we are in your head," but he was cheered on by the vociferous home support. Fognini broke Murray to love and earned another break when Murray double-faulted as he won five straight games to take the opening set. Murray almost dropped serve again early in the second set as he had to fend off two break points after being 40-0 up. However, Fognini broke twice at the end of the set following another double-fault from Murray on the first of two break points. The final set went with serve until the final game, when Fognini went up 40-0 on Murrays serve. Murray saved one match point when Fognini netted a forehand, and rescued the second with a crosscourt volley but hit the third into the net. It was Murrays second defeat in 20 singles matches in the Davis Cup. Fognini moved to 14-2 on clay this season. "He played very well today, thats for sure," Murray said. "Hes a very good player especially on this surface, so I knew it was going to be a tough one and I wasnt able to play well enough. I did OK physically, not the best, but Ive been worse." Italy had not lost at home to Britain since 1926, and Seppi protected that record by winning a match that saw seven breaks of serve in the opening set. Seppi was gifted the set after three successive errors from Ward and he held to love to take the opening game of the second. Ward missed a chance to get back into the match in the fifth game and Seppi took a decisive 4-2 lead when Ward volleyed into the net after saving three previous break points. Seppi held to love with a drop shot for a 2-0 lead in the match. Ward had to save another three break points in the first game of the third but Seppi won four games in a row en route to the victory. He sealed the win when Wards return sailed long. Jeremy Walker Braves Jersey . Ricciardo made it only halfway around the Jerez track before his RB10 rolled to a stop and began spouting smoke from the back. After team mechanics tended to the car, Ricciardo went back out for a mere two trips around the circuit before calling it quits. Chris Martin Braves Jersey . LaQuinton Ross scored 17 of his 20 points in the first half, hitting his first four 3-pointers, to send No. https://www.cheapbraves.com/ . Louis Blues have returned to the top spot in the TSN. Andy Messersmith Braves Jersey . The victory strengthened Liverpools position in the top four after Tottenham lost 1-0 at Norwich in the days late kickoff, cutting the north London club six points adrift of fourth place and the final Champions League slot for next season. Josh Donaldson Jersey .C. -- Gleason Fournier scored the shootout winner as the Grand Rapids Griffins defeated the Abbotsford Heat 4-3 Friday in American Hockey League action.OAKLAND, Calif. -- With the Texas rotation ravaged by injuries early in the season, Martin Perez has more than filled the void. Perez pitched his second consecutive shutout to extend his scoreless innings streak to 26 and the Texas Rangers wrapped up a three-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics with a 3-0 victory Wednesday. "Hes been the glue," manager Ron Washington said. "Hes held it together. Hes the one guy in that rotation whos been in it from last year who hasnt had a blip yet." The Rangers have been without Yu Darvish, Matt Harrison and Colby Lewis already at times this season but still find themselves in first place thanks to some strong play from fill-ins and major improvement from Perez. Perez (4-0) outpitched Sonny Gray (3-1) in a heralded matchup of emerging stars, allowing just three hits and two walks in his first start since throwing a three-hitter against the White Sox for his first career shutout. "I dont want to think too much about my ERA and the games that Ive thrown before," Perez said. "Im going to focus on my game today. We had a great game." Perez, who also threw eight scoreless innings against Houston on April 13, is the first Rangers pitcher to have three straight scoreless starts since Kenny Rogers had four straight over 30 innings in 2005. Perez also joined Charlie Hough in 1983 as the only Texas pitchers to have three straight starts of at least eight scoreless innings. "He knows how to pitch," Washington said. "He has weapons and he can throw them all for strikes and he has poise. He does a great job of staying with the game plan and thats something that hes learned from last year, how to study, how to go out there and just execute his pitches." Donnie Murphy homered and Michael Choice scored one run and drove in another for the Rangers, who moved a half-game ahead of Oakland in the AL West with their first sweep of the As since August 2011..dddddddddddd. The As never even threatened Perez on their way to getting swept at home for the first time since September 2012 against the Angels, ending a streak of 32 straight home series with at least one win. "Youre going to have your little lumps in the road," As third baseman Josh Donaldson said. "Everybody knows that here. We just have to come back." Oakland got leadoff singles from Jed Lowrie in the fourth and Derek Norris in the fifth for its first two hits off Perez. But Perez followed each of those hits by getting the next batter to hit into a double play, giving him a major league-leading 11 groundball double plays. Donaldson doubled with one out in the seventh, but was stranded there when Alberto Callaspo grounded out with runners on first and second to end the inning. "He keeps the ball off the barrel of the bat," As manager Bob Melvin said. "Hes pitched really well this year. The reason he can get deep in games is hes not striking a lot of guys out, hes just keeping it off the barrel of the bat." Gray allowed three runs and five hits in seven innings to end a six-game winning streak in the regular season dating to last September. He fell behind when Choice led the game off with a walk and scored on Alex Rios triple. The Rangers were poised for a possible big inning when Rios was originally ruled safe at home on a grounder Lowrie at shortstop. But Melvin challenged the call and Rios was ruled out on instant replay. Choice, traded from Oakland to Texas in the off-season, added an RBI single in the fifth and Murphy hit his first homer of the season in the sixth to make it 3-0. NOTES: Rangers 3B Kevin Kouzmanoff was held out with a sore back. ... Scott Kazmir (2-0) will take the mound against Brett Oberholtzer (0-3) on Thursday when Oakland opens a four-game series in Houston. ... Texas is off Thursday before beginning a three-game series in Seattle on Friday. ' ' '