Kukushkin needed three hours four minutes to defeat world No. 34 Denis Istomin 64 62 67 62 in the Davis Cup by BNP Paribas World Group play-off tie. It was his second victory of the weekend after he overcame Uzbekistan's Farrukh Dustov in four sets on Friday.

Istomin had racked up a large amount of time on court already in the tie having needed five sets to see off the challenge of Evgeny Korolev on Friday before returning to action yesterday in a straight sets loss that put the home side in charge.