The Russians claimed a 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 victory in one hour 38min to give the hosts a crucial lead going into Sunday's deciding reversed singles rubbers.

"Together with Dmitry (Tursnov) we are a good and experienced team," Safin said after the match. "We worked out our plan for the match and everything worked perfectly."

"We were just playing every single point allowing our opponents to make mistakes," Tursunov added. "And they were making mistakes throughout the match."

Not even the presence of Argentine football legend Diego Maradona, among the thousand or so Argentinian fans, could boost the visitors as Safin and Tursunov broke Nalbandian's serve early before racing to a 4-1 lead and wrapping up the first set in 26 minutes.

The second set was almost a carbon copy of the first. The Russians, who were champions in 2002, again raced to a 4-1 lead breaking Nalbandian's serve, and experienced few troubles in keeping their advantage to claim the second set inside an hour.