It has been Greg Rusedski's nightmare that he loses an important game for his adopted country. Yesterday the Canadian-born player faced that unpleasant possibility for more than three hours in the opening encounter of a Davis Cup tie against India described by the captain David Lloyd as the most important since Britain reached the final 20 years ago.

So shackled with tension at Nottingham was Rusedski that he was never ahead against Leander Paes from the first game of the first set until the 13th game of the final set of an excruciating five-set win. And but for the help of a net cord in saving a match point nine games before the end, the bad dream would have come true.

By then both men were so afflicted by tension that neither could swing freely at all and the mixture of the crabbily inhibited and the courageously brilliant continued.

The crowd were locked in anxious fascination until the end, which finally arrived after three hours and 16 minutes. It came when Paes double-faulted on Rusedski's second match point to give the British number two a 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 11-9 win. That laid the foundations of the 2-0 lead established by Tim Henman's four-set win, by 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3, over Mahesh Bhupathi which gives Britain a good chance of returning to the world group of 16 top countries for the first time since they were relegated in 1992.

In Stockholm, Jonas Bjorkman earned a valuable first Davis Cup semi-final point for host nation Sweden last night with a 6-3, 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 victory over Spain's Alex Corretja.

Swedish number one Bjorkman had to regain control after losing the third set against the world number seven from Barcelona. His victory put the Cup holders into early command on the fast Taraflex carpet at the Kungliga Tennishallen.

Then Swedish Davis Cup debutant Thomas Johansson nudged the Scandinavians further ahead when he beat French Open champion Carlos Moya 7-5 7-6 (7/4) 7-6 (8/6) in the second singles match.

Watching the Bjorkman match were the former Swedish greats Bjorn Borg, Anders Jarryd and Joakim Nystroem. The show of Davis Cup solidarity was typical of six-time champions Sweden, and in sharp contrast to the situation on the other side of the Atlantic where the leading Americans have declined to play for their country in the other semi-final against Italy.

The winner of the Sweden-Spain match will face either of those two sides in the final on December 4th6th and last night it was the Italians who drew first blood with Andrea Gaudenzi defeating JanMichael Gambill 6-2 0-6 7-6 (7-0) 7-6 (7-4) in Wisconsin.