World number four Nikolay Davydenko returned to action on Saturday when he teamed up with Igor Andreev to give Russia a 2-1 lead in the Davis Cup quarter-final against the Czech Republic on Saturday.
Russian captain Shamil Tarpishchev had left out Davydenko from Friday's singles after he flew in late to Moscow following his triumph in Miami last weekend.
Feeling fresh after enjoying a rest day, Davydenko joined forces with Andreev and the duo outfought the Czech team of Pavel Vizner and Radek Stepanek 3-6 6-3 7-5 6-4 to give the hosts the psychological edge ahead of Sunday's reverse singles.
"Igor and I play well together. After the first set we were able to relax, we had fun playing and we weren't nervous," Davydenko told reporters.
Russian number one Davydenko gifted his opening service game to the Czechs after producing a double fault on break point, and the visitors capitalised on the error to win the first set.
But from then on the Russians barely missed a shot.
Andreev had the pleasure of serving out the final game and he dispatched a return from Stepanek to win the match and send the partisan crowd into raptures.
"The Czechs began better than us but then they lost it," Andreev said of the match which last nearly three hours. "If I was to judge our play today I would give us five and them four minus."
The teams had split the opening day's singles after Marat Safin had unexpectedly beaten Czech number one Tomas Berdych, before Stepanek drew the tie level with a three-set win over Andreev.
The winners of the tie will face either Argentina or Sweden in the semi-finals in September.
(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)
