Great Britain continued their 100% start to the Davis Cup Finals with a 2-1 victory over Switzerland in their second Group B affair at the Manchester Arena.
Fresh from an identical win over Australia in their opening battle, GB took another giant step towards a place in the knockout stages, with Andy Murray firstly defeating Leandro Riedi in a captivating three-setter.
However, Stan Wawrinka rolled back the years to defeat Cameron Norrie in straight sets and level the scores for Switzerland, but the 38-year-old and Dominic Stricker fell short in the tie-breaker against Dan Evans and Neal Skupski, whose doubles success propelled GB to the top of the section.
Friday's fixtures had a particularly sobering feel to them for Murray, who missed his grandmother's funeral to contribute to the Davis Cup cause, and he dedicated his win over Riedi to his late relative after a breathtaking battle.
The three-time Grand Slam winner was forced to do it the hard way but came through 6-7[7] 6-4 6-4 with three hours and 10 minutes on the board against Riedi, who gave a brilliant account of himself on his Davis Cup debut.
© Reuters
The 21-year-old hit a plethora of winners on the forehand side early doors and showed resilience to come back from 5-2 down, breaking Murray as the Briton was serving for the first set and edging ahead in the tie-breaker.
Murray was unable to match Riedi's winners count as the contest continued, but the 36-year-old proved superior at the net and broke for a 4-3 lead on a double fault before losing serve himself.
However, Murray responded with an immediate break back of his own before levelling the match, and he kept his errors to a minimum before serving out the match with his third ace of the day.
Murray let emotion take over on the court as he paid tribute to his grandmother, but Norrie could not follow up his compatriot's success, going down 5-7 4-6 to Wawrinka in one hour and 34 minutes.
The British number one was overwhelmed by Wawrinka's venomous serves early doors, as the Swiss veteran hit nine aces in the first set and broke Norrie to love while he was serving to try to force a tie-breaker.
© Reuters
Norrie drew first blood in the second set with a break in the third game, but Wawrinka channelled his enviable experience to level for 4-4, and the home favourite once again failed to hold his nerve when it mattered most in the 10th game.
Wawrinka's win set up a decisive doubles match, where Neal and Skupski made amends for yesterday's inconsequential defeat to Australia by defeating the former and Stricker 6-3 6-3 in 70 minutes.
The British duo broke their opponents' serve in the third and ninth games of the opening set and made just five unforced errors, albeit while surviving back-to-back double faults in the fourth game.
After saving a break point to hold for a 3-2 lead in the second set, Evans and Skupski won the next two games and took their first match point on a powerful Evans serve, which Stricker could only return long.
Leon Smith's team will now bid to seal a spot in November's quarter-finals on Sunday with a meeting against France, who were bested 2-1 by Australia in their second encounter.
