Saturday 17 September 2016 15:13, UK
Great Britain are one slip-up away from Davis Cup semi-final defeat after losing both of the day one singles matches against Argentina.
Andy Murray suffered a five-set loss to Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro in an enthralling Glasgow opener and Guido Pella then defeated Kyle Edmund in four sets to put the seal on a fantastic first day for the visitors.
Reigning champions Great Britain will try to kick-start a comeback in Saturday afternoon's doubles rubber, before the tie concludes with the reverse singles on Sunday.
British No 1 Murray contested the longest match of his career against the hard-hitting Del Potro, who he defeated in a similarly epic Olympic gold medal match last month.
Del Potro eventually prevailed 4-6 7-5 7-6 3-6 4-6 after five hours and seven minutes to claim one of his best wins since winning the 2009 US Open and confirm he is a major force once again, after a long battle with injury.
He quelled the atmosphere in Glasgow by taking the opening set against Murray and the Brit required a calming talk from team captain Leon Smith in the second, but eventually found a break in the final game to avoid a tie-break and draw level.
An exchange of three consecutive breaks in the third set indicated that both players were unable to gain a foothold - appropriately only a tie-break could separate them, and Murray pinched it, having earlier produced a sublime lob to save a set point.
Oddly it was Murray who tired in the fourth - so accustomed to overwhelming opponents, he fell a break behind and lacked the energy to recover.
Still struggling physically, Murray roared as loud as the Glaswegian crowd merely when he held his serve for 3-2 as Del Potro poured on the pressure in set four.
Eventually the Argentine's aggression told - he broke for 4-3 with a brilliant forehand winner, drawing audible gasps from the pro-Murray crowd.
Murray bravely saved match point on his own serve two games later but, despite gutsy defence from the Brit, Del Potro held serve to hand Murray a first Davis Cup singles loss at home.
"I did great today," said Murray. "I'm very proud of how I fought, I did fantastic. I fought for every point, tried as best as I could. That's all you can do."
A proud Del Potro said: "I'm so tired, I've got cramps everywhere. It was the longest match of my career and I won it against Andy playing here.
"It's very special for me and I think we played for more than five hours, both at a very high level."
Great Britain would still have been in fairly good shape if quarter-final hero Edmund, the World No 55, had defeated the 49th-ranked Pella.
Edmund played well in a keenly-contested first set and it went to a tie-break which he won 7-5, having been 3-0 down.
But Pella continued playing to a consistently high level in front of a raucous Friday night crowd while errors began to slip into Edmund's game.
Pella levelled the match by winning a tight second set and, having gone a break down in set three, he suddenly made the decisive move, winning six games in a row from 3-2 down before going on to triumph 6-7 6-4 6-3 6-2.
Murray will now wait to decide whether he will play in the crucial doubles rubber on Saturday alongside his brother Jamie.
The problem for captain Leon Smith is that he left doubles back-up Dom Inglot out of the team and may have to turn to Dan Evans.
Murray said: "I'll have to see how I pull up tomorrow when I wake up and then probably make a decision.
"I've never played a match that long. I've played matches close to that length but none after an extremely long stretch of playing, so I don't know how I'll feel."
