Dmitry Tursunov booked Russia's place in the Davis Cup Final after a memorable victory over Andy Roddick in one of the greatest matches in the tournament's history.

The world number 22 won the tie in dramatic style 6-3 6-4 5-7 3-6 17-15 in a match which lasted four hours and 48 minutes,

The victory meant Russia took an unassailable 3-1 lead into the final rubber which saw James Blake register a meaningless 7-5 7-6 (7/4) win over Marat Safin.

Russia will face Argentina in the final in early December, with the South Americans holding an unbeatable 3-0 advantage over Australia after Saturday's doubles win.

The Latin Americans duly won both dead rubbers on Sunday to complete a 5-0 whitewash.

Tursunov had some inside knowledge over the Americans as he moved to the USA at the age of 12 to pursue his career in California.

Turned down for a green card by his new country, Tursunov took full revenge by holding off Roddick's spirited challenge.

Asked how he felt about his epic performance he said: "I'm not quite sure yet, but I think it's similar to [the quarter-final in] Pau (against France) - I'm a little bit tired but overall pretty happy. Yeah, it's a great feeling, you can't really describe it."

The Olympic stadium in Moscow is widely tipped to host the final against Argentina in December as the Russians will not want to play on the red clay surface favoured by the Latin Americans.

Russia's only previous Davis Cup win came in 2002 on French soil and if they could see off Argentina at home it would be their first in front of their own supporters.

Argentina are tilting for their first ever win in the competition some 25 years after their best performance where they finished runners-up to the United States.

Former Russian president and noted tennis fanatic Boris Yeltsin was among the spectators who watched the home favourites delight the crowd with their victory.

The win was set up when Safin and Mikhail Youzhny won both of Friday's singles matches at the expense of Roddick and Blake, respectively.

However, the Bryan brothers Bob and Mike had kept the tie alive by beating Tursunov and Youzhny on Saturday.

The Davis Cup team's success underlines the strength of Russian tennis with the women also having tasted plenty of success in recent years with Anastasia Myskina, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Maria Sharapova all having enjoyed grand slam success in the past two years.

Sharapova recently won the US Open which was the Siberian-born youngster's first success at grand slam level since her breakthrough success at Wimbledon in 2004.