France reached its first Davis Cup final in eight years after securing an insurmountable 3-0 lead over Argentina by winning the doubles yesterday.

Michael Llodra and Arnaud Clement, playing together in Davis Cup for the first time in more than two years, defeated Eduardo Schwank and Horacio Zeballos 6-4, 7-5, 6-3 in 2½ hours to decide the best-of-five tie.

The French will face either the Czech Republic or Serbia in the 3-5 December final. In that semi-final, the Czech Republic is leading Serbia 2-1 ahead of today’s decisive singles.

Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek rallied to defeat Djokovic and Nenad Zimonjic 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-1. Djokovic skipped Friday's opening singles because he was still tired after losing the US Open final to Rafael Nadal on Monday. He entered the doubles but did not make much difference, losing his serve in the final game of the match.

He will have to win his match against Czech No. 1 Berdych today to keep alive Serbia's hopes of reaching its first Davis Cup final.France, which routed the defending champion 5-0 in the quarterfinals, won the last of its nine Davis Cup titles in 2001 and lost to Russia at home in the 2002 final.

All of the French players enjoyed a lap of honour on the indoor hard-court of the Palais des Sports and were joined in their celebrations by replacement Richard Gasquet and the injured Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Julien Benneteau.

"I'm so proud, they are here, all together. All those seven guys were key elements in our successes," France captain Guy Forget said. "But there is another tie to play, we have such a talented team, and we can't be satisfied with a runner-up place. We want to win (the trophy)."