Germany came into its final Round Robin tie on Friday at the ARAG ATP World Team Championship needing to win all three matches in order to guarantee its place in the final, but saw their Championship hopes quickly come to an end as the Czech Republic successfully avenged last year's defeat in the group decider.

Tomas Berdych's dismissal of Philipp Kohlschreiber in the first singles match put Germany's qualification chances in limbo, and Jan Hajek sealed the host nation's fate in straight sets as he defeated Florian Mayer.

Berdych took a 3-0 lifetime record into his meeting with Kohlschreiber, but was facing him for the first time since the German had captured his first career ATP title earlier this month in Munich.

But the No. 12-ranked Berdych, who has compiled a solid clay court season with semifinal run in Monte-Carlo and Munich and quarterfinal appearance in Rome, still proved too much for Kohlschreiber. He broke the German four times in eight chances and denied Kohlschreiber's two opportunities to deliver the 6-3, 6-2 victory in 71 minutes.

Hajek, who assumed the No. 2 position on the Czech Republic roster following Radek Stepanek's last-minute withdrawal, turned in yet another impressive performance as he clinched his country's place in the final with a 7-6(4), 6-2 win over Mayer. He steamrolled Mayer by winning the final six games of the match, and capped off his perfect singles week at the Rochusclub as his Czech teammates celebrated in the stands.

Mayer said: "Of course this defeat was unnecessary and very frustrating for me. I continue to make the same mistakes. I am looking for solutions, but so far I failed to find them. I don't want to talk about the reasons now, I am looking for help from my coach, my mental coach and friends. However, one should not overlook that Hajek played fantastic. In the decisive phases I was too passive and too careful."

The Czech Republic came into its decisive Round Robin tie at a historic disadvantage against host nation Germany, having lost all four of their previous head-to-head encounters at the ARAG ATP World Team Championship.

Last year, Germany prevailed over the Czech Republic in a thrilling group decider in which the duo of Michael Kohlmann and Alexander Waske propelled their country into the final for the second consecutive year by defeating Berdych and Leos Friedl in the Match Tie-break.

German Team Captain Patrik Kühnen said: "Of course our aim was to play for the title. But since Tommy Haas' withdrawal due to injury we must admit that the teams that defeated us this year, Spain and the Czech Re-public, were indeed better. We all knew that we would have been stronger with Haas. We once again had a good week in Duesseldorf, though not a really successful one. But I don't rate that as a setback. We shall attack again next year."

The Czech Republic will attempt to capture its first ARAG ATP World Team Championship title against two-time winner Argentina on Saturday. The countries have met in Round Robin action each of the last two years, with Argentina winning 2-1 in 2005 and Czech Republic by the same score last year.

The Czech Republic is a three-time finalist, most recently finishing as runner-up to Chile in 2003.