Spain need to win the last two singles rubbers of their Davis Cup tie after the German pair Tim Puetz and Jan Lennard Struff beat Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez in a marathon five-set rubber which lasted four hours and 40 minutes.

Puetz and Struff beat the Spanish duo 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7 (4), 7-5 in front of a fervent Spanish crowd in the Valencia bullring to leave the quarter-final 2-1 in Germany's favor ahead of Sunday's last two singles.

The German pair won the first two sets and although the Spanish duo fought back to claim the third, the Germans were two points away from winning the rubber when they went 30-0 up in the 10th game of the fourth set, only for Feliciano Lopez to fight back and win the game.

Marc Lopez then saw his service broken as the set went into a nail-biting tiebreak, which the Spanish duo won and they looked to be in the ascendency in the last set, only for the German pair to dig deep and break Marc Lopez's last serve.

Puetz had maintained his serve unbroken all afternoon then served out to leave the Spanish looking at a surprise elimination unless Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer can turn things around on Sunday. 

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