MADRID, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- France beat Japan 2-1 in a hard-fought opening tie in Davis Cup Group A in Tuesday's opening session of play at Madrid's Caja Magica.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga got France off to a positive start with a straightforward 6-2, 6-1 victory over Yasutaka Uchiyama on the hard-court surface in Madrid, before Yoshihito Nishioka beat the experienced Gael Monfils 7-5, 6-2.
The French duo of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut then won an epic doubles tie 6-7, 6-4, 7-5 against the Japanese pair of Uchiyama and Ben McClachlan.
Argentina had few problems beating Chile 3-0 in their opening Group C tie, thanks to Guido Pella's 6-4, 6-3 triumph over Nicolas Jarry, before Diego Schwartzman rolled Cristian Garin over in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 and the doubles pairing of Maximo Gonzalez and Leonardo Mayer beat Jarry and Podlipnik-Castillo 6-3, 7-5.
In Group E, Kazakhstan defeated the Netherlands 2-1 after Mikhail Kukushkin beat Botic Van de Zandschulp 6-2, 6-2. The Dutch hit back with Robin Hasse's three-set win over Alexander Bublic, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6, but Bublic was able to show his powers of recovery and take some revenge as he and Kukushkin won their doubles tie 6-4, 7-6 against Hasse and Jean-Julien Rojer.
