Marbella, Spain  - Philipp Kohlschreiber rescued German hopes on Friday's opening day of the Davis Cup World Group quarter-final against holders Spain, levelling the tie at 1-1 with a straight-sets defeat of Tommy Robredo.

Kohlschreiber's 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win left Germany level-pegging after Fernando Verdasco got off on a tear for the hosts to defeat debutant Andreas Beck 6-0, 3-6, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2, 6-1, taking the first set in 22 minutes.

Beck, ranked 51st, suffered with nerves at the start in the packed-out bullring setting at the southern Spanish resort city, with Verdasco winning six of the opening seven games in 30 Celsius heat in front of 9,000 mainly-Spanish fans.

Once the German shed his stage fright, he made a match of it, falling in the fifth set after three hours, 10 minutes.

"Naturally I'm disappointed," said Beck. "I'm sorry I couldn't help the team today.

"I was bothered by my emotions and played badly at the start. I've never experienced anything like this Davis Cup atmosphere."

Kohlschreiber said he executed his game plan perfectly to leave Germany in with a chance against a Spanish side missing both Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer through injury.

"This time, I played correctly," said 29th-ranked Kohlschreiber, who had lost his last two matches against the Australian Open semi-finalist. "I was super-concentrated. I didn't want to lose to him again."

Germany will give Mischa Zvereva a test of fire in Saturday's doubles as the first-time player teams with Nicolas Kiefer against Spaniards Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez.

In Tel Aviv, unfancied Israel took a surprise 2-0 lead over 2006 champion Russia, who have played the semi-finals for the past four years and are into the quarters for the tenth time in 11 years.

But the hosts took little notice, with Harel Levy starting the afternoon with a defeat of Igor Andreev 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 followed by Dudi Sela's upset of Mikhail Youzhny 3-6, 6-1,
6-0, 7-5.

Marat Safin and substitute Igor Kunitsyn are set to defend Russian colours in the doubles on Saturday as Safin likely bows out from the Davis competition.

Tomas Berdych put the Czech Republic into 1-0 command against three-time runner-up Argentina with his 6-4, 2-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Juan Monaco.

In Porec, Croatia, James Blake was opening for the US against big-serving Ivo Karlovic in the first singles tie.  (dpa)