Kaohsiung (Chinese Taipei): Somdev Devvarman routed world number 59 Yen-Hsun Lu 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 to steer India to the third round of the Asia/Oceania Group I Davis Cup competition as the stunning victory gave the visitors an unassailable 3-1 lead against Chinese Taipei on Sunday.
Somdev's second consecutive win in the second round tie has made the fifth rubber between Rohan Bopanna and Ti Chen inconsequential.
India will now play the winners of the other second round tie between Australia and Thailand in May to qualify for the World Group play-offs.
It has been more than a decade that India had last played in World Group in 1998.
India had lost 1-4 to Romania in the play-offs last year to relegate to the Asia/Oceania Group I.
Lu, who started as favourite in the rubber, let himself down with unending unforced errors as he allowed Somdev to escape from precarious situations.
The Taipei player set up the points beautifully, mostly by pinning Somdev to the baseline but the winners deserted him, making the job easy for the Indian.
To Somdev's credit, he kept hitting the ball and engaged Lu in long rallies inducing him to commit mistakes.
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