Holders Czech Republic overcame the absence of their top two players, Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek, to take a 2-0 lead against Kazakhstan in the first day of the Davis Cup quarter-finals on Friday.
Jan Hajek had little trouble disposing 156th-ranked Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3 6-2 6-4 in the opening singles before Lukas Rosol prevailed over world number 205 Andrey Golubev 4-6 6-4 6-2 7-6 to put the defending champions in command of the tie.
The remaining three quarter-finals were all evenly split at 1-1 after a tense opening day to the men’s team event.
Sam Querrey won his first five-set Davis Cup match to help the United States draw level with Serbia after world number one Novak Djokovic struck first for the visitors.
Milos Raonic, riding his booming serve, helped Canada square their tie with Italy, who had gone ahead after Andreas Seppi staged a mighty comeback.
And Juan Monaco beat Gilles Simon in a duel of world top-20 players to put Argentina level 1-1 with France in Buenos Aires.
Berdych and Stepanek led the Czechs to their first Davis Cup title as an independent nation last year but pulled out because of the singles because of injury, although Stepanek will play in Saturday’s doubles.