Colombia defeated Canada in a second-round tie Sunday after No. 93 Santiago Giraldo won the fourth rubber against rookie Steven Diez of Toronto 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 at the Davis Cup.
Colombia only needed one more victory to take the best-of-five series after entering the day leading 2-1. It will now advance to a playoff, with a chance of qualifying for the 16-nation World Group in 2011.
Canada's captain Martin Laurendeau made a line-up change for the final day of competition, putting 18-year-old Diez into action in place of Peter Polansky of Thornhill, Ont., who dropped the opening rubber in straight sets on Friday.
Diez joined Tennis Canada and its national team program in December from Spain where he had lived and trained for 10 years.
As a natural clay court player, Diez had an impressive training camp with the team leading Laurendeau to name him as the fourth player prior to the official draw earlier in the week.
Diez's Davis Cup debut for Canada started out strong as he broke Giraldo's serve in the first game of the match, but he was unable to sustain that energy and level of play. Giraldo capitalized on nearly every break point opportunity he was given displaying his advantage in experience.
The fifth match between Thornhill's Milos Raonic and Juan-Sebastian Cabal is considered a dead rubber as it does not affect the outcome of the tie.
Canada will now play a second-round play-off tie in September to keep their place in Americas Zone Group I for 2011.