Great Britain must win a deciding doubles rubber against France to keep alive their Davis Cup hopes for this season after Cameron Norrie was beaten by Ugo Humbert in Manchester.
Dan Evans fought back from a set and a break down to see off teenage debutant Arthur Fils 3-6 6-3 6-4 to give Britain the lead in front of a 13,000 sell-out crowd at the AO Arena, a single day record for the competition in this country.
An out-of-form Norrie also battled from behind to force a deciding set against Ugo Humbert but was unable to take it, the Frenchman winning 7-6 (5) 3-6 7-5.
It will therefore come down to the final match of the week to decide who joins Australia in qualifying for the final eight event in Malaga in November.
Team selection has been one of the most intriguing aspects of this week and here it was France springing a surprise by turning to 19-year-old Fils ahead of the experienced Adrian Mannarino, against whom Evans has a great record.
Smith opted for his two highest-ranked singles players, overlooking Jack Draper, who made his own impressive debut in beating Australia’s Thanasi Kokkinakis on Wednesday, and Andy Murray.
Fils is the highest-ranked teenager in the world at 44 and the most exciting of a crop of young French players.
It was immediately clear this was not a comfortable match-up for the 5ft 9in Evans, who struggles to impose his finesse-based game against power hitters, and he was in deep trouble when he was broken for a second successive game at the start of the second set.
Fils had been landing everything but he played a poor game serving at 3-2 to allow Evans back into the contest and from there a combination of the crowd, smart play by the British number two and his opponent’s inexperience turned things around.
Fils managed to stay in touch in the deciding set and Evans had to come through a tense final game, leaping and punching the air before expressing annoyance at his opponent for a very perfunctory handshake.
“He’s a super nice guy,” the 33-year-old said later. “I understand it now.
“Obviously I’m a bit fired up when I was at the net as well. It’s fine, he’s a little younger than me.
“I’ve been in that situation, you just want to get off the court.
“He played very good at the start. A very unorthodox forehand.
“It took me a little while to get into it. It’s been a pretty long week. Maybe I was a tiny bit flat at the start but I got the crowd involved.
“It’s an amazing crowd today. You really helped me get through when I was a set and a break down and not feeling exactly how I wanted to be playing.
“To be playing in front of such a big crowd for the country again, it’s everything to me.”
Evans’ victory gave Norrie the chance to clinch the tie, with Smith keeping faith with his number one despite his disappointing last few months and a loss to Stan Wawrinka on Friday.
Norrie saved a set point to force a tie-break in the first set against his fellow left-hander Humbert but blazed a backhand wide after fighting back from 2-6 to 5-6.
Norrie was not playing badly, though, and he secured the first break of the match to take a 2-0 lead in the second set.
Against Stan Wawrinka on Friday he had wilted from a similar position but here Norrie passed a real test by saving two break points at 4-2 and then another at 5-3 after three set points had come and gone.
It was the sort of gritty tennis that carried Norrie to the top 10 not so long ago, and he clinched his fourth chance to send the match to a deciding set.
Norrie seemed in the ascendancy for much of it but could not force a break and it was he who cracked serving to stay in the match, a double fault handing Humbert a victory the Frenchman described as one of the best of his life.
Swiatek opens Olympic bid with straight-sets win over Begu
Iga Swiatek got her bid for Olympic gold up and running with a straight-sets victory over Irina-Camelia Begu in Paris.
The world number one is the firm favourite to win gold at Roland-Garros, where she has won four editions of the French Open, including the last three in a row.
Swiatek and Begu traded breaks at the outset of their clash on Court Philippe-Chatrier, but the Pole continued to put her opponent under pressure when receiving and back-to-back breaks took the opener away from Begu.
The second set was more of a slog for Swiatek and a break in the seventh game had Begu serving to level things up, but Swiatek found a second wind to break back and only dropped one further point from there, winning 6-2 7-5.
Swiatek will face Argentina's Nadia Podoroska or home favourite Diane Parry in the second round, with the likes of Danielle Collins, Jessica Pegula, Naomi Osaka and Angelique Kerber also on her side of the draw.
On the other side of the bracket, Jasmine Paolini – the runner-up at both the French Open and Wimbledon this year – advanced with a 7-5 6-3 win over Ana Bogdan.
Data Debrief: Twenty-two and counting for Swiatek
Swiatek has now won a remarkable 22 successive matches on the courts of Roland-Garros, last losing at the venue to Maria Sakkari in the 2021 French Open quarter-finals.
In all clay-court tournaments, she has won her last 20 matches, also capturing titles in Madrid and Rome earlier this year.
“The favourite is Thompson”-Boldon highlights Jamaican champion as man to beat in 100m in Paris
Trinidadian four-time Olympic medallist Ato Boldon has named Jamaican sprinting sensation Kishane Thompson as his favourite to take 100m gold at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Thompson, 23, is currently the world leader in the event after running a personal best 9.77 to win the 100m title at the JAAA/Puma National Senior Championships at the National Stadium in Kingston in June.
The MVP Track Club-trained sprinter also produced times of 9.82 and 9.84 in the heats and semi-finals, respectively, at those national championships and, most recently, ran 9.91 shutting down to win at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Hungary on July 9.
“Thompson is the favourite,” Boldon said in an interview with LetsRundotcom on YouTube on Friday.
“I know Noah (Lyles) is the World champion. I think Noah made it a little bit more interesting by running that 9.81 into a headwind which kind of almost converts to a 9.77 but there’s no way you can look at the way in which Thompson ran that 9.77 and just go ‘Oh Noah will beat him.’ Noah has his hands full with that guy,” Boldon said.
Blazing speed acknowledged, one thing that Thompson lacks that his other competitors don’t is experience competing at the highest level of the sport with this being his first time representing Jamaica at any level.
If there is anything to prevent Thompson from delivering on the form that he’s shown so far this season, Boldon believes that would be this lack of experience on a stage like the Olympic Games compared to his peers.
“There are things which I see people completely ignoring. Kishane Thompson has not been under the microscope of Olympic favourite. Rounds are a great equalizer. Noah has the medals that he does because of how well he runs rounds. Is Noah suddenly a lock for the silver? No but he does have his hands full,” he said.
“There are others who are going to be in the 100m that are used to the pressure and pressure is a big thing. If he’s able to pull this off, you write books about stuff like that,” he added.
Thompson's quest for Olympic glory will begin in the heats of the men's 100m beginning on Saturday' August 3.
Djokovic thrilled by prospect of 'one last dance' with Nadal
Novak Djokovic is thrilled by the prospect of meeting Rafael Nadal for "one last dance" at the Paris Olympics, if the Spaniard overcomes an injury setback to feature at Roland-Garros.
Thursday's men's singles draw saw Djokovic paired with Australia's Matthew Ebden in the first round, with Nadal taking on Marton Fucsovics.
The legendary duo – who have won 46 grand slam singles titles between them – will meet in the second round if they both advance through their openers this weekend.
Djokovic and Nadal have previously faced off on 59 occasions, with the Serbian winning 30 of those contests but losing four of the last six, the most recent being a Nadal victory in four sets in the 2022 French Open quarter-finals.
Nadal's participation at the Games was thrown into doubt when his coach Carlos Moya said he had suffered a "setback" on Thursday and required 48 hours of rest.
If Nadal – who is widely expected to retire later this year – does make the tournament, Djokovic is looking forward to the prospect of facing him for a 60th time.
"Obviously he hasn't played much. His ranking dropped, so there was always going to be that possibility of me meeting him in an early round and there we go," Djokovic said.
"It's going to be a spectacle, definitely, if we get to meet. We will spread some fireworks on the court, like the good old times.
"I hope we get to meet because it will probably be one last dance for the both of us."
Djokovic is set to appear at his fifth Olympics in the French capital, the joint-most by any male player since the sport returned to the Games in 1988 (with Yen Hsun Lu).
He is the player with the most matches played (19) and joint-most matches won (13, level with Roger Federer) at the Olympics since 1988.
However, his best result at the Games remains a Bronze medal at Beijing 2008, when he was beaten by eventual gold medallist Nadal in the semi-finals.
Djokovic lost the bronze medal match to Pablo Carreno Busta at the delayed Tokyo Games three years ago, also losing to Juan Martin del Potro at both London 2012 and Rio 2016.
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