Queensland Tennis Centre, Brisbane, 7 April 2012 | Tennis Australia

Australia has clinched a World Group playoff spot after taking an unbeatable 3-0 lead in their Davis Cup tie against South Korea in Brisbane today.

Chris Guccione and Marinko Matosevic were surprised early before downing Suk-Young Jeong and Jae-Min Seol  in the Davis Cup Asia-Oceania Zone Group 1 doubles.

The Aussies eventually pulled out a 4-6 6-1 6-4 6-2 victory over the Koreans at Patrick Rafter Arena. Following singles wins by Bernard Tomic and Matt Ebden yesterday, the Australian side  advanced to the September playoffs for a chance to enter the 16-nation 2013 World Group. The draw for this will be held next week and Australia’s only chance at another home tie will be if they draw Italy or Canada.

Reverse singles take place tomorrow from 1pm.

Today was a first pairing for Guccione and Matosevic in doubles, and the early stages of the match were pitted with nerves, muffed balls, leaden feet and a slight air of panic as the Aussies went down 1-4 to the athletic, free-hitting Koreans.

Matosevic lost his first live Davis Cup match (in singles) at Beijing last year, and this was to be his ‘monkey-off-the-back’ moment. The tension escalated after Guccione swiped at an easy lob midway through the first set and completely missed it, after which Matosevic began playing more to his world No.122 singles ranking.

While the Aussies dropped the first set to the attacking Koreans, self-belief returned for the rest of the match on the back of Guccione’s reliable booming serve and Matosevic’s pounding groundstrokes.

“I’m enjoying the moment, I’m really enjoying this. I think it had a lot to do with Marinko having a win,” a relieved Aussie captain Pat Rafter said after the match.

“Marinko’s going through a lot of the lessons that a lot of guys go through at 19 or 20. He’s 26 now. He certainly showed a lot of nerves in that match because he feels that pressure of playing for your country that we all feel. I want him to start feeling that and work out how to deal with it because we want him in September, and we want him next year. ”

Matosevic said he remained unconvinced he would play doubles today, despite being named in the line-up.

“Today I wasn’t too confident coming into the doubles court. I really did think it was going to be Matt [Ebden] out there,” he admitted. The start was horrendous. I started to play better and better.  After we lost the first set I was a little relieved and we got on top of them. It was pretty easy after that.”