Nicolas Almagro and David Ferrer got Spain, seeking their fourth win in five years, off to a winning start on Friday with victories in their Davis Cup quarter-final at home to Austria.

Also enjoying a strong start was France, who took a 1-0 lead over the United States as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Ryan Harrison 7-5 6-2 2-6 6-2 at Monte Carlo.

Even in the absence of Rafael Nadal, Spain are hot favourites to advance and Almagro gave them the perfect early tonic by whipping Jurgen Melzer 6-2 6-2 6-4.

The one-way traffic continued as world No.5 Ferrer, Spanish No.1 in the absence of Nadal, crushed Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-1 6-3 6-1 to take the hosts to the brink of the semi-finals.

Doubles tandem Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez can wrap up victory for the defending champions ahead of time if they can see off Austrian counterparts Oliver Marach and Alexander Peya on Saturday which would render academic Sunday reverse singles matches between Ferrer and Melzer and Almagro and Haider-Maurer.

Tsonga said coming to European red clay after US hardcouts was a tough transition and admitted he had struggled to begin with.

“We have just come from Miami and it’s a change from hardcourt. It takes time to adapt. But I got through it ok,” said 2008 Australian Open finalist Tsonga.

“Now I hope Gilou (Gilles Simon) will pull out something big for us.”

In Prague, Tomas Berdych gave the Czech Republic a 1-0 advantage over Serbia, following his 6-2 6-1 6-2 victory over Viktor Troicki.

Janko Tipsarevic will look to even the scores when he faces Czech Radek Stepanek in the second singles match.