American veteran Jim Courier rolled back the years to foil a British comeback late last night and book a place for his country in the last eight of the Davis Cup world group where they will face Australia.

Holders Sweden and much-fancied Spain earlier headed the casualty list in the world group first round matches as Slovakia and Brazil completed surprise wins.

France and Australia sealed wins against Holland and Zimbabwe respectively to also book quarter-final spots alongside Switzerland, who had wrapped up their win over last season's beaten finalists Italy on Saturday. Belgium edged a superb 3-2 win over the Czech Republic while Russia eclipsed Germany by the same scoreline.

Victory had looked a formality for the United States after they won both of Friday's opening singles match. But Britain, who won the doubles on Saturday, squared the tie when Tim Henman defeated Todd Martin 46, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) yesterday afternoon.

That meant the final singles rubber between Greg Rusedski and former world number one Courier would decide the tie. But Courier dug deep in front of the partisan British crowd to thwart Rusedski in a five set thriller, finally prevailing 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 63, 1-6, 8-6.

Slovakia's Karol Kucera ensured Sweden will have to part company in December with the silver bowl trophy with a win over Thomas Enqvist in the first of the reverse singles in Trollhattan.

Kucera and Dominik Hrbaty had won both singles on Friday against Thomas Johansson and Enqvist respectively before Sweden reduced arrears with a doubles win by Nicklas Kulti and Jonas Bjorkman over the Slovak duo on Saturday.

But Kucera beat Enqvist 1-6, 63, 6-2, 6-4 to ensure there would be no repeat of last year's tie in Bratislava when Sweden came from 2-0 down to win 3-2 before going on to lift the trophy. Slovakia will play Russia in the last eight.

Meanwhile, Brazil pulled off a memorable victory in Lerida over Spain, who on paper were the strongest squad in the tournament - the Spanish had four top 20 players in their squad.

The hero of the hour was former French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten, who easily beat world number two Carlos Moya 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 yesterday.

Kuerten had already distinguished himself with a singles win over Alex Corretja on Friday and a doubles win on Saturday alongside Jaime Oncins against Corretja and Albert Costa.

Moya had given Spain a point on Friday, beating Fernando Meligeni but the fat lady had already sung when Corretja won the final singles against Marcio Carlsson 6-1, 6-2 to leave a final score of 3-2.

In the last eight Brazil will visit France, whose former Wimbledon finalist Cedric Pioline gave them a winning 3-1 lead over Holland at Nimes with a gutsy 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7/5) win over Richard Krajicek.

Banana-chomping Pioline silenced the minority orange-clad Dutch section of the crowd, sending the majority home fans into raptures, leaving the final singles match as a mere formality.

Australia banished memories of their shock loss to Zimbabwe last year by beating the same opponents in Harare by an equally convincing 4-1 scoreline.

Last season's setback was followed by revelations of a feud between Mark Philippoussis and Davis Cup captain John Newcombe and coach Tony Roche.

But yesterday's victories by Philippoussis and Pat Rafter over Wayne and Byron Black respectively avoided the need for any further recriminations. Byron Black had beaten Philippoussis on Friday before Rafter saw off Wayne to square the tie.

But the Blacks lost the doubles on Saturday to Australian pair Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde and the Aussies never looked like losing that momentum yesterday.

Belgium pair Xavier Malisse and Christophe Van Garsse won both yesterday's singles in Ghent to give the outsiders a comeback 3-2 win over the Czechs. They had trailed 2-1 overnight.

Van Garsse saw off Bohdan Ulihrach 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 while Malisse accounted for Slava Dodesel 3-6, 6-4, 6-0, 7-6 (9/7). Belgium will now play Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Russia edged a 3-2 victory over Germany.