Japan and India were tied at one match each after the first day of their Davis Cup Asia Oceania Zone Group One second-round tie at Tokyo's Ariake Colosseum on Friday.
Leander Paes spanked Japan's Yaoki Ishii 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 in the first match, but Takao Suzuki evened things up for the home team by routing Mahesh Bhupathi by an equally convincing score, 6-1, 6-0, 6-2
The winner of the tie advances to a September playoff for a place in the elite 16-nation World Group in 2002.