Great Britain has strengthened their bid to reach the Davis Cup Finals knockout stage as Dan Evans and Neal Skupski secured a tight win over Switzerland.
Evans and Skupski won 6-3 6-3 against Swiss pair Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Stricker in the deciding doubles.
In a best-of-three tie, Andy Murray won in the singles – later revealing he was missing his gran’s funeral – before Wawrinka beat Cameron Norrie to level.
Britain, who play France in their final tie, can clinch progress this weekend.
After also beating Australia in their opening Group B tie on Wednesday, Britain will qualify by beating the French on Sunday and claiming three wins from their three ties.
But Britain could progress before that if the Swiss, who are now eliminated, beat Australia on Saturday.
Asked how far Britain can go, captain Leon Smith said: “Honestly, I think we’ve only got to get ready for Sunday, it’s a massive match.
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“[Qualification] will go down to the wire, we need a full house and a lot of noise.”
Four nations – Britain, Australia, France and Switzerland – are playing in the group-stage event held at Manchester’s AO Arena.
They all play each other once in a round-robin format, with the top two countries going through to the knockout stage – known as the ‘Final Eight’ – in Malaga in November.
Britain are top of the table with each nation having played twice, having earned their second win of the week against Switzerland on Friday.
Former world number one Murray, 36, fought back to beat Swiss debutant Leandro Riedi 6-7 (7-9) 6-4 6-4 on a difficult day where he became emotional on court when dedicating his win to his gran Ellen.
Murray’s win meant Norrie had the chance to seal victory, but the British number one lost 7-5 6-4 to three-time major champion Wawrinka.
However, Evans and Wimbledon champion Skupski played superbly to win the doubles and spark jubilant celebrations in front of an ecstatic home crowd.
“We’re using the whole squad and that’s really important – everyone has played their part,” Smith added.
“We knew it would be tough today. Andy did a fantastic job in our first match, Stan played incredible against Cam, and I hoped for a quick doubles – that’s what we got.”
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