Croatia, France 2-0

LONDON: Spain's title defence began nervously after Switzerland pocketed the first singles while the Czech Republic, Serbia, France, and Croatia swept their matches on the first day of Davis Cup World Group action on Friday.

The 2-0 leads for the Czechs over host Belgium, Serbia over the United States, France against Germany, and Croatia against Ecuador followed the formbook, but Argentina surprisingly tied Sweden 1-1.

The results:

At Logrono (Spain): Spain 1 Switzerland 1 (Nicolas Almagro lost to Stanislas Wawrinka 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3, David Ferrer bt Marco Chiudinelli 6-2, 7-6(5), 6-1.

At Toulon (France): France 2 Germany 0 (Gael Monfils bt Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(5), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga bt Benjamin Becker 6-3, 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-3.

At Stockholm (Sweden): Sweden 1 Argentina 1 (Robin Soderling bt Eduardo Schwank 6-1, 7-6(0), 7-5, Joachim Johansson lost to Leonardo Mayer 5-7, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4.

At Varazdin (Crotia): Croatia 2 Ecuador 0 (Ivo Karlovic bt Nicolas Lapentti 6-2, 5-7, 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4, Marin Cilic bt Giovanni Lapentti 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.

At Belgrade (Serbia): Serbia 2 USA 0 (Viktor Troicki bt John Isner 7-6 (4), 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-4, Novak Djokovic bt Sam Querrey 6-2, 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3.

At Bree (Belgium): Belgium 0 Czech Republic 2 (Olivier Rochus lost to Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-0, 6-4, Xavier Malisse lost to Radek Stepanek 6-2, 6-4, 7-6(3) .