For the first time in 27 years of the Davis Cup all countries have a chance to move into the second round as we enter day 3 action.

Day Two of play in seven European venues and and one in South America was highlighted by two epic doubles matches lasting over four hours and going to five sets.

Chile fought their way back into the tie against Russia with Olympic gold medalists Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu defeating Igor Andreev and Marat Safin 7-6, 6-3, 6-4. In the only tie that involves the same players in both doubles and singles contests, the South Americans must win both reverse singles matches on Sunday to keep their ten-rubber home win streak alive. Gonzalez will be looking for his Australian Open form when he faces off against Safin. This tie can go either way and is one I will be watching closely.

In Krefeld, Germany took a 2-1 advantage following a strong showing by Alexander Waske and Michael Kohlmann who powered to a 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 victory over Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic, who were riding high on a six-match winning streak in Davis Cup competition. Waske and Kohlmann had the form on the board going into the match following their tournament win last week in Zagreb.

In the reverse singles on Sunday, Tommy Haas has a chance to wrap up the tie when he takes on Ljubicic. If Haas fails, Benjamin Becker will have an excellent chance to beat Ancic, who no doubt will be weary following his illness during the week.

France were in a position to wrap up their home tie against Romania and with the experienced doubles pairing of Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra, you would have expected them to claim victory. The Romanian pairing of Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau had other ideas, however, and in an epic match they surprisingly won 3-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-7, 11-9. The contest lasted four hours, 35 minutes and could have gone either way right to the end. In the reverse singles, Richard Gasquet will be looking to delight the home fans with a victory over Andrei Pavel.

In another epic doubles encounter, the Spanish team of Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco claimed a thrilling five-set victory over Switzerland's Yves Allegro and Marco Chudinelli. The final score was 7-6, 6-7, 6-7, 6-1, 12-10, the match lasting four hours, 47 minutes. At one stage the Swiss were just two points from victory and must be very disappointed to have let this match slip. Spain now hold the upper hand going into the reverse singles. If Fernando Verdasco is not able to wrap things up in the first match, David Ferrer will be favoured to claim the tie for Spain in the final rubber.

The United States remain favourites to beat the Czech Republic following an easy straight-sets win by Bob and Mike Bryan against Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner. The final score was 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Andy Roddick will look to win the tie when he takes on Tomas Berdych. This will be no easy match for Roddick, as Berdych showed top form to defeat James Blake on day one. If the tie is alive going into the fifth rubber, Blake will be keen to make up for his earlier loss and take the Americans into the second round.

Australia had a comfortable doubles win in Belgium to keep alive their tie. The new Davis Cup pairing of Lleyton Hewitt and Paul Hanley cruised to a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 victory to set up a thrilling third day finale. Hewitt will look to make up for his Day One loss when he plays Olivier Rochus in the first of the reverse singles. I expect this tie to be decided in the fifth rubber  between Chris Guccione and Kristof Vliegen. Guccione will try to repeat his fifth rubber win on clay against Switzerland in last year's Davis Cup first round.

Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer kept Austria's chances alive by taking out the doubles match against  Argentina's Jose Acasuso and Sebastian Prieto 6-3, 6-7, 6-1, 7-5. The Austrians played without their team captain Gibert Schaller, who was ordered to stay in bed by the team doctor. Based on the Day One form, you would have to favour Argentina to win this tie, although in the Davis Cup, so often it is too hard to predict the outcome.

The final tie of the weekend saw Belarus pair Max Mirnyi and Vladimir Voltchkov defeat the Swedish doubles opponents Simon Aspelin and Jonas Bjorkman 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. This match had the top two doubles players in the world facing each other -- Mirnyi as No.1 and Bjorkman at No.2. Just recently they teamed up to make the Australian Open final.

This article is proudly brought to you courtesy of tennis-fanatic.com

Davis cup Discussion on MensTennisForums.com