The Davis Cup quarterfinals appear destined to produce some earth-shaking upsets after both Israel and Croatia stormed to early leads in their respective quarterfinals on Friday.

Heroic performances my Marin Cilic and Ivo Karlovic saw the Croatians take the first round of singles matches against the United States 2-0. Cilic required 5 sets to put away Mardy Fish, while Karlovic also needed 5 sets to defeat James Blake 6-7 (5), 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 7-5.

There were even bigger upsets afoot in Tel Aviv, where Harel Levy and Dudi Sela of Israel saw off Igor Anreev and Mikhail Youzhny of Russia. The Israelis require just one more victory to seal their first ever Davis Cup semifinal appearance.

Andy Ram and Jonathan Erlich will take on Marat Safin and Igor Kunitsyn on Saturday in the doubles tie of their 2009 Davis Cup quarterfinal. Ram and Erlich are former Australian Open doubles title winners and should have the edge over their Russian rivals.

Meanwhile, the quarterfinal between Spain and Germany saw the sides level 1-1 going into the weekend. Argentina were also level with the Czech Republic with 1 point apiece after the two nations traded blows in the singles matches on Friday.

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