BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) Kyle Edmund overcame long rain delays and beat Janko Tipsarevic in straight sets to give titleholder Britain a 1-0 lead over Serbia in their Davis Cup quarterfinal on Friday.
With Wimbledon champion Andy Murray not playing but supporting the team from its box, Edmund won 6-3, 6-4, 6-0 in a match that stretched over five hours with two long rain delays.
The second singles between Serbia's Dusan Lajovic and James Ward was postponed until Saturday, with the doubles to follow.
The match already began after a brief delay and a minute of silence for the victims of the Nice attack.
But soon a shower forced the match to be suspended for an hour. When they returned, Edmund broke serve for 3-1 and rode that advantage to win the set. He also broke at the start of the second and was up 2-1 before another delay that took one hour, 45 minutes.
By the time they started again, only diehard British fans stayed, while most of the Serbs deserted the downtown Tasmajdan stadium, named after a quarry in Ottoman times.
Tipsarevic, a former top-10 player who is coming back from a long break for two heel surgeries and a knee injury and is now ranked No. 405, broke back to level at 3-3 but dropped his serve in the next game with two double-faults, and Edmund regained control.
With light rain falling through the third set, Tipsarevic's challenge collapsed.
Edmund, the highest ranked player in the tie at No. 67, finished with 24 winners, three times more than Tipsarevic, and 29 unforced errors compared to 43 for Tipsarevic.
Serbia is also without its top player Novak Djokovic, the No. 1 in the world, and its No. 2, Viktor Troicki.