Australia and Switzerland are locked at one all in their Federation Cup tie after Stefanie Voegele upset Jarmila Gajdosova in a marathon encounter in Fribourg.
Samantha Stosur earlier accounted for Timea Bacsinszky 6-2 7-5 but Voegele's 6-0 6-7 (8-10) 8-6 win over Gajdosova squared the ledger.
Egged on by a lively local crowd at the Forum Fribourg, Voegele went on the attack against world number 40 Gajdosova.
After eight match points the world number 124 finally clinched result in two hours and 28 minutes on the temporary indoor clay court.
Gajdosova produced 77 unforced errors to her opponent's 56.
"She struggled mentally throughout the match and struggled with the crowd," Australia's Fed Cup captain David Taylor said.
"She did not deal with that well today."
"But she kept on fighting and gave herself opportunities although she was not playing her best."
US Open champion Stosur was earlier made to earn her 93-minute win over former top 40 player Bacsinszky, who is on the way back from a 10-month layoff after foot surgery.
"Obviously the first set I was cruising along quite nicely but then I got down 0-3 in the second and you start to feel a little bit of pressure," Stosur said.
"I played a couple of good games and throughout that second set it was like in and out of playing well and doing what I should have been doing."
"It was up and down for both of us so it was nice to get out of that one with a straight sets win," she said.
Australia is considering changes for Sunday's reverse singles with either Jelena Dokic or Casey Dellacqua a chance to come in for Gajdosova.
The Australians will be looking to return to the World Group in 2013 with a win over the Swiss this weekend and another success in April to re-instate them in the elite eight.
The tie is the fifth time the two teams have met. Australia leads 4-1 in the head-to-heads winning first in 1966 and then three times in the 2000’s. The sole triumph for the Swiss nation was in 1983 in Zurich.
Australia was relegated in 2011 after a shock 3-2 loss to Ukraine in the World Group play-offs in Melbourne. The Australian team haven’t lost a tie away since 2008.