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The doubles pair of Nam Ji-sung and Song Ming-kyu
began the fightback as they battled past Sander Gille and Joran
Vliegen 7-6(3) 7-6(5) before Kwon Soon-woo levelled the tie at
2-2 by getting past David Goffin 3-6 6-1 6-3.
World number 240 Hong Seong-chan then sealed the tie with a 6-3
7-6(4) win over Zizou Bergs in the deciding fifth rubber in
Seoul. It was the first time they had come back from losing
their opening two matches to prevail.
"I'm so grateful and proud of the players for not giving up and
doing their best until the end," Park said. "It's so good that I
don't know how to express it.
"The players made history as a team with the coaching staff.
It's like a dream to advance to the finals for two consecutive
years. I don't know if this is real."
Hong, who lost his opening singles match to Goffin after Kwon
fell in the first rubber, said he set out to frustrate Bergs,
who is ranked more than 120 places above him.
"As soon as I started, I thought it was working well," Hong
said. "The atmosphere was good before the game. Of course I was
nervous, but I was also very excited. After the match point, I
thought I showed it."
A busy weekend of ties had 24 nations competing to reach the
group stage to be held at four venues from Sept. 12-17, with 12
winners joining 2022 champions Canada, runners-up Australia and
wildcards Spain and Italy.
Finland sealed their first berth in the group stage with a 3-1
win over 2016 champions Argentina. Croatia, Chile, Netherlands
and Czech Republic also advanced on Sunday.
List of qualifiers
Canada
Australia
Italy
Spain
Chile
Croatia
Czech Republic
Finland
France
Britain
South Korea
Netherlands
Serbia
Sweden
Switzerland
United States
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter
Rutherford)
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