Tennis powerhouses Italy and the United States are once again through to the United Cup quarter-finals after joining Kazakhstan, China and defending champions Germany in the last eight.
Flavio Cobolli dug deep to claim a 6-3 6-7 (8-10) 6-2 upset win over France's Ugo Humbert in Sydney to ensure Italy's progression before world No.4 Taylor Fritz outclassed Borna Coric 6-3 6-2 in the opening rubber of Team USA's tie with Croatia in Perth.
Team Italy needed to win just one match in Tuesday's clash at Ken Rosewall Arena to advance, and Cobolli did just that on New Year's eve.
Humbert looked set to clinch an easy victory over Cobolli after putting together a clinical performance to take the first set in 31 minutes.
But Cobolli broke back after Humbert served for the contest before staving off a match point in a tense second-set tiebreaker.
France's world No.14 cracked under the pressure in the decider as he racked up 22 unforced errors to nine, Cobolli pulling off his comeback win in two hours and four minutes.
Jasmine Paolini added an exclamation mark to Italy's 2-0 win, the world No.4 easily defeating Chloe Paquet 6-0 6-2 in exactly an hour.
Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori then defeated Elixane Lechemia and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3 7-6 (7-3) in the mixed doubles for the cherry on top.
"The roads are going to be busy after four o'clock. Flavio played too long," Paolini said, joking about her quick victory.
"I'm happy with my performance. I was focused every time.
"I'm happy as well that Flavio won an amazing match. Unbelievable."
Cobolli added: "It's always tough to come back when you are set and break down but I did it.
"I was focused on my game and just playing my tennis. I had a little bit of luck on match point."
Winners of the past two Davis Cups and runners-up two years ago to the US in the inaugural edition of the season-opening mixed teams' event, Italy won Group D even without world No.1 Jannik Sinner after also sweeping Switzerland 3-0 in their opening tie.
Italy will face either Australia or Great Britain in the quarters.
Team GB and Australia clash in a winner-takes-all affair in Sydney on Wednesday night when the hosts' spearhead Alex de Minaur must put sentiment aside and take down his new fiancee Katie Boulters' Brits 3-0 to be assured of advancing.
Iga Swiatek's Poland take on Czechia to kick off the new year, with the winners to top Group B and face the best runners-up out of Sydney.
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— United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) December 31, 2024
France are out of the tournament after losing both group matches, their first being a 2-1 defeat to Switzerland.
They needed to either win all three rubbers against Italy to secure a quarter-final spot or 2-1 and have other results fall their way to finish the best runners-up out of the three groups.
The star-studded top-seeded US outfit only needed to win one rubber in straight sets on Tuesday to top Group A, and Fritz lived up to expectations with a dominant display against Coric before Coco Gauff downed Donna Vekic 6-4 6-2 for good measure.
Group C winners Kazakhstan will take on defending champions Germany, who topped Group E, in the first quarter-final in Perth on Wednesday morning.
The USA meet China, Perth's best runners-up, in the twilight quarter-final in WA.
