Nick Kyrgios staged a magnificent recovery to pull Australia level with Belgium at the end of the first day of their Davis Cup semi-final in Brussels.
Kyrgios shrugged off his grand slam travails to beat Steve Darcis 6-3 3-6 6-7 6-1 6-2 and restore parity after John Millman's earlier defeat to David Goffin.
Kyrgios, beaten by Millman in the first round of the US Open last month, showed a different side to his game as he fought back brilliantly to keep his team's hopes alive.
He told the Davis Cup website: "Lleyton (Hewitt, Australian captain) has put so much dedication into this, the Davis Cup has always been my number one priority this year."
Earlier, Goffin had given Belgium the lead by recording a 6-7 (4) 6-4 6-3 7-5 win against Millman in just over three-and-a-half hours.
World number 12 Goffin had won 13 of his last 14 Davis Cup singles matches and the home side will expect him to do the same in the potentially crucial reverse singles against Kyrgios on Sunday.
Serbia and France are also tied at 1-1 after the first two singles in Lille after an heroic start from world number 80 Dusan Lajovic.
Acting as Serbia's lead player with both Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki out injured, Lajovic won 6-1 3-6 7-6 (9/7) 7-6 (7/5) to help dampen the atmosphere at the clay-court Stade Pierre-Mauroy.
The 27-year-old took the opening set in less than half-an-hour but Pouille hit back to level the match after capitalising on two early breaks.
Pouille missed an opportunity in the third set handing Lajovic control of the match, and the Serbian kept his cool in a second straight tie-break to seal an impressive win.
But the French recovered with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga winning 7-6 (7/2) 6-3 6-3 in the second singles rubber against Davis Cup debutant Laslo Djere.
Djere showed few signs of nerves early in the match as he broke the Tsonga serve but the experienced Frenchman broke back immediately and cruised through the first set tie-break.
The Serbian world number 95 had no answer to Tsonga's serve in the second set and despite continuing to pose a tough challenge, it was not enough as Tsonga levelled the scores ahead of the doubles.
Source: PA
