Mardy Fish brought the United States level 1-1 with Slovakia in their World Group play-off on Friday after Andy Roddick's 19-match winning streak came to an abrupt halt on slow Slovak clay in the Davis Cup.
Roddick, less than two weeks after winning the U.S. Open, fell 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to Dominik Hrbaty in the opening singles before Fish, a late choice by captain Patrick McEnroe, rallied to beat Karol Kucera 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-1.
Spain take 2-0 lead over Argentina
Carlos Moya took advantage of an attack of cramp suffered by Argentina's Mariano Zabaleta on Friday to come from two sets down for a victory that took Spain to the brink of a place in the Davis Cup final.
Argentina, missing their top two singles players David Nalbandian and Guillermo Coria because of injury, needed something special in the World Group semi-final after Juan Carlos Ferrero had given Spain the lead with a dazzling 6-4, 6-0, 6-0 win over Gaston Gaudio.
For the first two sets, Zabaleta looked like providing it as he repeatedly hit the lines with a series of booming forehands to move into a seemingly commanding lead.
However, at 2-2 in the third, he required lengthy treatment for cramp and Moya met with virtually no resistance as he won 10 consecutive games to force a deciding set.
Zabaleta appeared to have made a slight recovery in the fifth was still unable to move about the court with any freedom and Moya completed a valuable 5-7, 2-6, 6-2, 6-0, 6-1 win to leave Spain just a point away from victory.
Spain now just need to win Saturday's doubles, or one of the two singles rubbers on Sunday, to reach a final against either Australia or Switzerland, who were level at 1-1 at the end of the opening day's place in Melbourne.
Spain beat Australia in the final in 2000 to win the Davis Cup for the first time.
Germany, Belarus level 1-1
Germany and Belarus were level at 1-1 after Friday's opening singles matches in their World Group Davis Cup playoff.
Tomas Behrend lost to Max Mirnyi 7-5, 6-2, 6-7 (6-8) 2-6, 4-6 Rainer Schuettler beat Vladimir Voltchkov 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4
Britain on back foot in Davis cup
Morocco enjoyed a satisfying first day in their Davis Cup play-off against Britain as Hicham Arazi thumped Tim Henman and Younes El Aynaoui overcame Greg Rusedski in the opening singles matches.
In the playoff to determine who stays in the World Group, Arazi achieved a convincing victory 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 against British number one Henman on Friday.
