PARIS, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Benoit Paire and Lucas Pouille earned reigning champions France a commanding 2-0 advantage over Spain after the opening day of the 2018 Davis Cup semifinals in northern France's Lille on Friday.
The visitors were much affected by world No. 1 Rafael Nadal's absence due to knee injury.
In his debut at the tournament, Paire underwent a hard-fought opening set victory to beat Spain's Pablo Carreno-Busta 7-5, 6-1, 6-0 on the hard court of Stade Pierre Mauroy.
Tagged as a "hot-headed" player, Paire paid off captain Yannick Noah's trust in the first rubber against the 21st-ranked Carreno-Busta. Despite bagging the first set in a thrilling manner, the Frenchman easily got an upper hand in the following two sets against his Spanish opponent hampered by left thigh injury sustained during the match.
Pouille followed in Paire's footsteps en route to his victory, while taking a totally different path. The France's No. 1 had to bounce back from one-set deficit and take full sets to get past Roberto Bautista-Agut 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in three hours and 41 minutes.
Pouille handed 52 winners, while conceding a total of 87 unforced errors.
The title holders are one victory away from the final berth, and that can be achieved by the duo of Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut as they will take on Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Feliciano Lopez on Saturday.
Elsewhere on Friday, Croatia also went ahead 2-0 against the United States deprived of John Isner and injured Jack Sock. Enditem
