Roddick needed two tie-breaks to see off Michael Llodra

Defending champions the USA fought hard for a 2-0 lead over France on day one of the Davis Cup quarter-finals.

Andy Roddick got the US off to a winning start when he overcame Michael Llodra and James Blake beat Paul-Henrie Mathieu in a five-set thriller.

Elsewhere, Spain are on the brink of victory over Germany after Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer won their matches.

The ties between Russia and the Czech Republic, and Argentina and Sweden, are both tied at one rubber each.

Roddick, the world number six, was pushed hard by Llodra before claiming a 6-4 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-5) victory.

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Blake's match with Mathieu was even closer but the American came through to take it 7-6 (7-5) 6-7 (7-3) 6-3 3-6 7-5.

The winner of that tie will face either Spain or Germany in the semi-finals.

At the moment, it looks like Spain will progress after Nadal overcame Nicolas Kiefer 7-6 (7-5) 6-0 6-3 and Ferrer saw off Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 6-4 6-2.

In Moscow, Marat Safin scored only his second victory of 2008, beating Tomas Berdych 6-7 4-6 6-3 6-2 6-4 in front of a partisan home crowd, before Radek Stepanek saw off Russia's Igor Andreev 6-3 6-2 6-4.

Safin, the former world number one, who has sunk to 87 in the world rankings, came back from two sets down to beat the Czech world number nine in just under four hours.

"At the start of the match I felt burdened and the first two sets were not so good," Safin said. "But as the match went on I began to return the serve better."

Stepanek, the world number 28, quickly cancelled out Safin's win by getting past Andreev in the second rubber.

"I came to the match with a clear tactic," Stepanek said. "I knew I had to make the rallies as short as possible and play as aggressively as possible. I didn't let him into the match."

In Buenos Aires, Argentina took the lead when David Nalbandian saw off Sweden's Thomas Johansson 6-2 5-7 6-4 6-2 but Robin Soderling brought the tie level when he beat Jose Acasuso 6-0 6-4 6-1.