Little Belarus won both singles rubbers on Sunday to record a famous win over 2002 winners Russia in Minsk.

Their cause was helped by the withdrawal of Marat Safin who was unable to play his singles match and instead was replaced by Youzhny, the hero of the 2002 final win over France.

Max Mirnyi evened things up at 2-2 when he beat Igor Andreev 6-3 6-4 6-4.

That ensured the match would go to the wire with Youzhny squaring up against Vladimir Voltchkov and it was the Belarus player who prevailed 7-5 6-2 6-4 to ensure his country progressed.

They now meet Argentina in the next round after the South Americans completed an easy 5-0 whitewash of Morocco in Agadir.

Elsewhere defending champions Australia were sensationally dumped out in the first round by Sweden.

Jonas Bjorkman, a late replacement for Robin Soderling, recovered from Saturday's punishing five-set doubles victory to beat Mark Philippoussis 7-5 6-2 6-2 in Adelaide and give Sweden an unassailable 3-1 lead in the tie.

Only two months ago, Philippoussis was the hero with a courageous victory over Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero as Australia won the Davis Cup.

But having entered the tie on the back of a bubbling feud with Pat Cash he looked a shadow of his former self. Former Davis Cup hero Cash had accused him of wasting his talent.

Philippoussis lost to Thomas Enqvist on Friday and though Lleyton Hewitt levelled the tie at 1-1, Sweden gained the upper hand with the marathon victory by Bjorkman and Joachim Johansson over Todd Woodbridge and Wayne Arthurs.

Switzerland's reliance on Roger Federer was evident again on Sunday as the newly-crowned world number one secured the extra point his nation needed to overcome Romania and secure a place in the quarter-finals of the Davis Cup's world group.

Having beaten Victor Hanescu on Friday and then teamed up with Yves Allegro to claim another point in an epic five-set doubles win on Saturday, Australian Open champion Federer must have been tired going into his match with Andrei Pavel.

But Pavel, who was also playing in his third rubber of the tie, was blown away as Federer extended his record to 12 wins in his last 13 Davis Cup singles matches with a 6-3 6-2 7-5 triumph.

Pavel did have a glimmer of hope when he led 4-1 in the third set, but Federer stepped up his game to give his side an unassailable 3-1 lead in the tie.

Victor Hanescu beat Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 in Sunday's 'dead' rubber, but the damage had already been done for Romania by that man Federer.

Spain were given an almighty scare but eventually prevailed against the Czech Republic.

The Spaniards were in all sorts of trouble after day two of their clash and faced early elimination.

Trailing 2-1 after Saturday's doubles Spain needed to win both reverese singles on Sunday to survive.

Feliciano Lopez was up first and did not let the side down as he bettered Tomas Berdych 6-4 6-7 (2-7) 6-3 6-2.

It all came down to a deciding game between Mallorcan teen sensation Rafael Nadal and dogged Czech star Radek Stepanek.

In a tight and nervy encounter Nadal held his nerve to win two crucioal tie-breaks before eventually closing out 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 and sending his side through.

France safely negotiated the first hurdle in their 2004 Davis Cup campaign when they progressed to the last eight at the expense of Croatia in Metz.

Arnaud Clement saw the French home and dry on Sunday when his 6-2 3-6 7-6 (7/3) 6-4 win over Ivan Ljubicic gave the hosts an unassailable 3-1 lead in the tie.

After the opening singles were shared 1-1 on Friday, France had edged ahead on Saturday by winning the doubles with Nicolas Escude and Mickael Llodra seeing off Mario Ancic and Ivo Karlovic.

That vindicated the decision of France captain Guy Forget to not select doubles specialist Fabrice Santoro who recently won the Australian Open doubles crown with Llodra and is a veteran of the Davis Cup, playing in the 2001 winning team.

The French made their win all the more emphatic as Nicolas Escude pounded big serving Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 in Sunday's final 'dead' rubber match.

Martin Verkerk, the 2003 French Open runner-up, claimed his second singles victory of the weekend to guide Holland to victory against Canada.

Verkerk overcame Frank Dancevic 6-7 (5/7) 6-2 7-5 6-3 as the Europeans moved 3-1 ahead.

Sjeng Schalken also won his singles for the hosts on Friday although Canada gave themselves hope by claiming a point in Saturday's doubles when Holland's Paul Haarhuis was forced to quit with a shoulder injury which also brought an end to his career.

Sjeng Schalken then saw off Simon Larose 6-2 7-5 as the Dutch cantered into the quarter-finals.

Finally, having already qualified the USA wasted little time in disposing of Austria.

After wrapping up the match 3-0 with a doubles win on Saturday, the Yanks rattled through their remaining two dead rubbers in Uncasville.

Andy Roddick, fresh from breaking the world speed serve record by registering a 150 mph howitzer earlier in the tie, knew far too much for young Jurgen Melzer and waltzed home 6-4 6-2.

Not to be outdone, young Robby Ginepri toom just 59 minutes to see off Austrian number one Stefan Koubek 7-5 6-2 and give America an impressive 5-0 win.