Kei Nishikori avenged one of the worst defeats of his career as the Japanese star defeated Dan Evans 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (7/3) to bring his country level with Great Britain in their Davis Cup clash on Thursday.

Nishikori suffered a miserable straight sets loss to Evans in the pair’s only previous meeting in the US Open first round in 2013. But the world No. 6 made amends as he dismissed Evans in the Briton’s hometown of Birmingham to take the second singles rubber after Andy Murray got the holders’ Davis Cup defence off to the best possible start with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 win over Taro Daniel.

Evans couldn’t find a way to unsettle the relentless Nishikori in the World Group first round tie. Evans had 0-40 in the seventh game of the second set, but failed to break and then saved two set points only to give it away with a missed volley and double fault.

In the third set he fought back from 2-0 down to twice lead by a break but could not hold on to his own serve. He dug deep to save a match point and take it to a tiebreak but slipped behind early on and could not recover, blasting a final forehand wide after two hours and 44 minutes.

Murray and captain Leon Smith must now decide whether he plays doubles alongside his brother Jamie, which proved a winning combination three times last year, or whether Jamie partners Dom Inglot.

Meanwhile, Kazakhastan fought back against Novak Djokovic’s Serbia to level their World Group first round tie at 1-1 in Belgrade.

In the opening singles, world No. 1 Djokovic shrugged off a shoulder problem to secure a 1-0 lead by easily defeating Aleksandr Nedovyesov.

Djokovic, who was playing for the first time in front of his home fans since the Davis Cup against Croatia in March last year, defeated world No. 200 Nedovyesov 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.

In second singles, Kazakhstan’s top player Mikhail Kukushkin, the world 79, defeated the world No. 23 Viktor Troicki 7-5, 6-2, 6-4.

France are 2-0 up against Canada after wins for Gael Monfils and Gilles Simon in Guadeloupe.