For the first time in 87 years, nine time winner France have beaten defending champion Spain in the quarterfinals of the 2010 Davis Cup.

After an opening day 2-0 lead with both the singles matches under their belt, the Frennch team started the doubles rubber with extreme confidence.

The French pair of Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra struggled for four sets before prevailing 6-1, 6-2, 6-7(6), 7-6(5) against the Spanish duo of Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez.

After the thrilling victory, Llodra said - "Today it was too good on the court. When I started playing tennis, my dream was to play in the French team. When I was 11 years old, I saw Guy Forget and Henri Leconte in Davis Cup in Lyon when they won against U.S.A. and, in my head, you know I said one time in my life I want to be like this and today it was amazing."

France now meet the winner of the tie between Argentina and Russia. Argentina leads the tie 2-1 with the second day's doubles rubber going in favour of the Argentinian team. David Nalbandian's replacement, Eduardo Schwank teamed up with Horacio Zeballos to beat the Russian pair of Nikolay Davydenko and Igor Kunitsyn 7-6(7), 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-1.

"We are really happy as this was a very important point for Argentina," said Zeballos. "I am really good friends with Schwank and we were confident as we are both good doubles players and had played together in the Pan American Games where we won."