Champions Russia booked their place in the second round of the Davis Cup on Sunday when Igor Andreev beat Nicolas Massu in the final rubber of their first round tie to seal a hard-fought 3-2 victory over Chile.
The South Americans had come from 2-0 down to 2-2 by winning Saturday's doubles and Sunday's first reverse singles between Australian Open finalist Fernando Gonzalez and former world number one Marat Safin.
But Andreev overcame Olympic champion Massu 6-2, 6-1, 6-7, 6-4 in the deciding rubber to set up a last-eight tie with France for twice-winners Russia.
Russia's victory extends their winning record over Chile in Davis Cup tennis to four matches dating back to their first meeting in 1963.
Andreev, ranked more than 100 places below Massu, played the first two sets as if he were the favourite, finding the corners with a series of elegant ground strokes and breaking serve seemingly at will.
The Chilean managed to stay with the Russian in the third set, taking it to a tiebreak which he won comfortably, but Andreev broke serve early in the fourth and kept his nerve to seal victory in the face of constant heckling from the home crowd.
BLISTERING FORM
In Sunday's earlier reverse singles, Gonzalez displayed the blistering form he showed at last month's Australian Open to beat Safin 6-3, 7-5, 6-4.
Adapting well to the slow red clay of this Pacific beach resort, the Chilean broke serve twice in the first set to come from behind and take it in 46 minutes.
He took the second thanks to a break of serve in the 11th game, producing a series of blazing forehand winners to the delight of some 7,000 raucous home fans.
The Chilean, who beat Lleyton Hewitt, Rafael Nadal and Tommy Haas en route to last month's Grand Slam final in Melbourne, broke serve in the fifth game of the final set and although the Russian responded in kind, Gonzalez broke again in the seventh and held his serve twice to wrap up the match.
Safin looked disgruntled throughout and twice complained to the umpire about the home supporters, who whistled and jeered him on crucial points.
He repeatedly gestured to the crowd, who kept up their barrage of noise despite attempts by Chilean captain Hans Gildemeister to calm them down.
"People should know that we've come here to play good tennis," the big Russian said afterwards.
"There's no need to insult people when they're playing. There's no need to shout between points. We're here to compete, and nothing more. We're not here to rob the Chileans of their land."
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