David Nalbandian beat Robin Soderling in a marathon five-set match to give Argentina an unassailable 3-1 lead over Sweden in their Davis Cup quarter-final.

Nalbandian recovered from two sets to one down to win 6-4 1-6 4-6 6-4 9-7 in four hours, nine minutes at the Parque Roca as Argentina avenged last year's 4-1 defeat by the same opponents at the same stage of the competition.

Argentina will face Russia in September's semi-final. Nalbandian, who has never lost a Davis Cup rubber at home, also beat Thomas Johansson in Friday's opening rubber and partnered Guillermo Canas in Saturday's doubles win.

The world number seven wept with emotion after clinching the tie and thanked the crowd for their often rowdy support.

"Luckily I was able to turn the game around thanks to the crowd, which helped me in key moments," said Nalbandian.

His win spared team captain Alberto Mancini the dilemma of whether to replace Jose Acasuso, beaten in straight sets by Soderling on Friday, for the final reverse singles.

On another chilly morning, Nalbandian broke in the opening game, Soderling replied in the fourth but another break in the seventh allowed the Argentine to take the first set in 44 minutes.

But Soderling, ranked 32 places bellow his opponent, suddenly got his serve together and fired nine aces as he took the next two sets.

The match appeared to turn following an incident in the fourth set, when play was interrupted by a scuffle in the crowd which led to at least one person being ejected by security men.

Soderling appeared to lose concentration and Nalbandian, who had also complained about the state of the court, took the set 6-4.

The fifth set went with serve until the 16th game when, with the crowd becoming increasingly hostile, Nalbandian broke to clinch victory.

Reuters