Lukas Rosol gave defending champions the Czech Republic a commanding 2-0 lead in their Davis Cup quarter-final clash with hosts Kazakhstan on Friday, battling back from a set down to beat Andrey Golubev.

World No.63 Rosol won 4-6 6-4 6-2 7-6 (8-6), subduing 205th-ranked Golubev in two hours 41 minutes.

Jan Hajek had gained the first point of the best-of-five match tie for the Czechs when he beat Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3 6-2 6-4.

Now Radek Stepanek, back from neck surgery in the wake of the Australian Open in January, will have the chance to clinch victory in Saturday’s doubles when he teams up with Hajek against Evgeny Korolev and Yuriy Schukin.

It’s a strong position for a Czech team that suffered a severe blow with the injury withdrawal of world No.6 Tomas Berdych prior to the tie on an indoor clay court in Almaty.

“I am very happy, because 2-0 after the first day for a captain is very important,” said Czech skipper Jaroslav Navratil. “Radek wants to play tomorrow to finish our tie, so I hope that they can finish it.”

The winners of the tie will face Argentina or France in the semi-finals of the nations tournament.

Argentina and France ended the opening day in Buenos Aires knotted at 1-1.

Juan Monaco, ranked 19th in the world, cruised past 13th-ranked Gilles Simon 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 6-4 on the clay courts at Parque Roca to even the tie after Jo-Wilfried Tsonga gained the first point for France.

Tsonga, the world No.8, laboured three hours and 53 minutes to subdue Carlos Berlocq 4-6 6-2, 6-3 5-7 6-2.

In Boise, Idaho, World No.1 Novak Djokovic got 2010 champions Serbia off to a fast start against the United States, with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 7-5 victory over John Isner.

But American Sam Querrey dug deep for a 7-6 (7-1) 3-6 4-6 6-1 6-4 victory over Viktor Troicki that let the hosts pull level at 1-1.

Djokovic recovered from an early break in the opening set and took control from there.

He saved the only break point he faced in the third set and broke Isner at love for a 6-5 advantage.

He served out the match with a love game, wrapping it up in two hours with a backhand winner that sent him dancing over to celebrate with his teammates.

Tasked with getting the tie back on terms, Querrey started strong, winning the first set and going up an early break in the second.

But he let that advantage slip away and after dropping the second and third sets had to dig deep for victory.

The winners in Boise will take on either Canada or Italy, who were 1-1 after the first day of play in Vancouver.

Andreas Seppi rallied from two sets down to beat Canadian Vasek Pospisil 5-7 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-3 in the opening match there.

But Milos Raonic pulled a point back for the hosts, firing 25 aces in a 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 victory over Fabio Fognini.