Davis Cup holders Croatia added the World Team Championship title to their trophy cabinet after beating defending champions Germany on Saturday.

Ivo Karlovic, in for the injured Mario Ancic, beat Alexander Waske, himself standing in for Philipp Kohlschreiber, 7-6 (7-5) 6-4, coming back from a 3-0 second-set deficit on the way.

Then Ivan Ljubicic, fifth in the ATP rankings, beat Nicolas Kiefer 6-4 6-4 to give Croatia an unassailable 2-0 lead in the best-of-three competition.

In the doubles, Karlovic and Ljubicic were at 6-6 in a dead rubber against Waske and Michael Kohlmann when rain halted play.

Kiefer congratulated Ljubicic on his and his country's win, telling the www.arag-world-team-cup.com website: "[He] played sound, good tennis.

"I hardly had a chance when he served, just one break point in the entire match. And in both sets he broke me early.

"However, we had a super week here and made it into the final - hardly anybody had thought we would achieve that.

"In the end we did not win which is a pity, actually."

This is Croatia's first win in this competition, and they become the fifth country to hold both the Davis Cup and the World Team Championship trophies simultaneously.