German number one Alexander Zverev beat Nick Kyrgios in straight sets to give his country a 3-1 win over Australia in their Davis Cup World Group tie.

Zverev won 6-2 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 in Brisbane to put Germany into a quarter-final against Spain or Great Britain.

Kyrgios appeared troubled by an elbow problem and Zverev, the 20-year-old world number five, only faced two break points in the match.

“Hopefully this is just the beginning for us,” Zverev said.

“It’s awesome, it’s an amazing feeling and without my team-mates it wouldn’t have been possible.”

Kyrgios, 22, went into the match full of expectation after an impressive win over Jan-Lennard Struff in Friday’s opening singles.

His elbow problem became more noticeable as the game progressed, the Australian often shaking his right arm between points.

“It obviously affected me a lot,” Kyrgios said. “My serve is my biggest strength. I mean, I thought he played great today – but my serve was not really there and that affects the rest of my game.”

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Zverev – who was pushed for almost four hours before seeing off 18-year-old Alex de Minaur in five sets on Friday – was rarely troubled.

Kyrgios lost two of his first four service games to surrender the opening set in just 23 minutes. He served better in the second set, firing down eight aces, but at 4-3 he had a medical timeout for treatment on his arm. The Australian continued to serve well and had two set points on Zverev’s serve at 6-5, but the German saved both then played a superb tiebreak to take a stranglehold on the match.

Defending champions France and fourth seeds Croatia lead 2-1 in their ties against the Netherlands and Canada respectively heading into Sunday.

Italy lead Japan and Belgium are 2-1 up against Hungary.

Germany took a 2-1 lead in their Davis Cup World Group tie against Australia after Tim Puetz and Jan-Lennard Struff won a tough five-set doubles rubber.

The duo beat John Peers and Matt Ebden 6-4 6-7 (1-7) 6-2 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 in three hours and 17 minutes in Brisbane.

German world number five Alexander Zverev will play Nick Kyrgios in the first singles rubber on Sunday.

Elsewhere, Ryan Harrison and Steve Johnson gave the United States an unassailable 3-0 lead in Serbia.

The Americans beat Nikola Milojevic and Miljan Zekic 6-7 (3-7) 6-2 7-5 6-4 in Nis to reach April’s quarter-finals, while Kazakhstan also secured their place in the last eight after their doubles victory over Switzerland in Astana.

Timur Khabibulin and Aleksandr Nedovyesov defeated Marc-Andrea Huesler and Luca Margaroli 6-4 6-4 3-6 6-7 (5-7) 6-3.

• GB’s Murray and Inglot beaten in doubles – report
• Live scores, schedule and results
• BBC coverage times

Defending champions France and fourth seeds Croatia both took 2-1 leads after victories in their respective doubles matches.

Pierre-Hugues Herbert joined up with Nicolas Mahut for France to beat Netherlands’ Robin Haase and Jean-Julien Rojer 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-2) in Albertville.

Australian Open finalist Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig came from two sets down to give hosts Croatia a 2-1 lead against Canada, defeating 45-year-old Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil 2-6 3-6 6-4 7-5 6-2 in Osijek.

There was also a doubles win for Italy’s Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini, who beat beat Japan’s Ben McLachlan and Yasutaka Uchiyama in Morioka to go 2-1 up.

Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics and Attila Balazs held off a fightback from Belgium’s Joris de Loore and Ruben Bemelmans to win 6-3 6-4 6-7 (2-7) 4-6 7-5 in Liege and keep the tie alive with the hosts’ lead cut to 2-1.

Great Britain trail 2-1 in their Davis Cup World Group tie in Spain after Jamie Murray and Dominic Inglot were beaten in the doubles by Pablo Carreno Busta and Feliciano Lopez.

Murray and Inglot were second best throughout, losing 6-4 6-4 7-6 (7-4).

Britain must win both reverse singles rubbers on Sunday to be victorious in the tie on clay in Marbella.

Cameron Norrie and Liam Broady are due to play for GB but captain Leon Smith can select Kyle Edmund if he is fit.

The Australian Open semi-finalist was not chosen for Friday’s singles because of a hip injury.

Norrie is scheduled to play Albert Ramos-Vinolas before Broady faces Roberto Bautista Agut.

Sunday’s singles matches are live on BBC Two and the BBC Sport website from 10:00 GMT.

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“The Spanish guys played an awful lot better than ours, it’s as simple as that,” Smith told BBC Sport.

“The court definitely favoured them but they also played well. We would have needed to make an awful lot more returns to try and make some inroads into their service games, but they were holding so quickly and we never really got any momentum.”

Asked whether Edmund would play on Sunday, he added: “He’ll have another practice session this evening on the match court, play some points for an extended period of time and after that we’ll have a good conversation with him.

“First and foremost, it’s got to be his decision because he’s coming back from an injury. Then the medical team will have their say, and if he’s ready to go then of course he should go out and give it a go.”

Britain fail to build on Norrie’s victory

The momentum appeared to be with Britain in this first-round tie after world number 114 Norrie came from two sets down to shock Bautista Agut in Friday’s second singles rubber.

However, they were always trailing in the doubles after Inglot was broken in the opening game and the British pair failed to sustain any pressure, creating only one unconverted break point in the match.

The crowd was much more partisan than on Friday when it often sounded like Britain was the home team and Lopez and Carreno Busta seemed to be inspired by the atmosphere.

Inglot struggled when serving and returning and was responsible for eight of Britain’s nine double faults.

Britain did at least fight hard to make the match competitive, saving 10 of the 12 break points they faced, but it was always a rearguard action to stay in touch.

They saved four break points when Inglot was serving at 2-4 down in the second set, while Murray had to save two at 5-5 in the third set, but none of the escapes could inspire a breakthrough when the Spaniards were serving, with 36-year-old Lopez rock-solid.

He and Carreno Busta raced into an early lead in the third-set tie-break and sealed victory on their third match point in two hours 28 minutes.

History and rankings against GB

Norrie and Broady – or Edmund if he comes in – face a monumental task to turn this tie around.

Spain captain Sergi Bruguera can bring in world number 10 Carreno Busta for the singles, while all five players in their squad are ranked in the top 40. Spain have won 27 of their past 28 Davis Cup ties on clay.

The losers of the tie will face a relegation play-off in September to stay in the World Group in 2019.

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