Rafael Nadal celebrates his win over Andy Roddick in Madrid on Sunday. (AP)

London: Rafael Nadal ensured Spain advanced to its sixth Davis Cup final by beating Andy Roddick 6-4, 6-0, 6-4 Sunday in a 4-1 semi-final victory over 2007 champion United States.

The top-ranked Nadal broke Roddick five times, saved all seven break points and served eight aces on the clay at the Las Ventas bullfighting arena.

Spain will play for the title against Argentina or Russia. That semi-final, being played in Buenos Aires, was tied 2-2 after Nikolay Davydenko rallied to beat David Nalbandian 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), 6-0 to draw Russia level with Argentina. The reverse singles match was Nalbandian’s third in the semi-final after helping Argentina sweep the singles Friday before losing Saturday’s doubles.

Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina is scheduled to take on Igor Andreev to decide the best-of-five series.

After his win over Roddick Nadal, who dropped to his knees and pumped his fists said, “It’s one of the nicest sensations you can experience in your career.”

“It was one of my most emotional matches in the past few months. A weekend to remember,”” he added.

Chile, Austria, Croatia, Israel, Romania and The Netherlands secured places in the World Group of the Davis Cup for 2009 after completing playoff victories in the reverse singles on Sunday. Australia, champions 28 times but without the injured Lleyton Hewitt, will remain in the Asia/Oceania group after losing in Chile.

Olympic silver medallist Fernando Gonzalez beat Chris Guccione 7-6, 7-5, 6-3 to secure an unassailable 3-1 lead and take Chile back to the World Group following their relegation last year.

Austria beat Britain 3-2 on the grass of Wimbledon as world number four Andy Murray’s victory over Austrian number one Juergen Melzer to level at 2-2 proved to be in vain.

Alex Bogdanovic, who has lost seven consecutive first round matches at Wimbledon and had not won a “live” Davis Cup rubber in five previous attempts, repeated his performance from Friday when he started well then fell away badly.

He took the first set against Alexander Peya but went down 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, 2-6 after yet another mental collapse to leave the Austrians in the top flight. (Agencies)