BRITAIN were desperate. So they called for Dan. With his usual No 2 James Ward struggling for form this summer and youngster Kyle Edmund rolling an ankle in the days leading up to this tie, Leon Smith had enlisted Dan Evans for his second singles rubber.

At first glance, this seemed like the most outrageous of gambles. As recently as June, when he narrowly missed out on Wimbledon qualifying, the 25-year-old was ranked the World No 763 but the months since then had witnessed one of the periodic upswings in this player's fortunes, as Evans won 31 out of 36 matches, albeit at Futures and Challenger level.

Yet while jilted duo Ward and Edmund watched on for the sidelines, along with Andy Murray, the method in the madness of Great Britain's Davis Cup captain became abundantly clear. The task of reprising his 2013 US Open victory against Bernard Tomic ultimately proved too much - the World No 23's 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (4), 6-4 victory levelled affairs intriguingly at one rubber each - but the way this game little scrapper battled to keep this match alive into early evening more than justified his captain's faith. Whether anyone else could have done any better is doubtful indeed. And Evans is now battle-hardened in the event that he is required to play a deciding fifth rubber which for now, is against Thanasi Kokkinakis, but could end up against wily veteran Lleyton Hewitt.

You could have called this one the battle of the bad boys. While Nick Kyrgios was excused participation in this tie after an eventful summer, Tomic had quietly returned to the Davis Cup fold after being dropped for the quarter final tie with Kazhakhstan due to a run-in with the Australian Tennis Federation's current director of player performance, Pat Rafter. There is a long running enmity between Rafter and Tomic's controversial father John, whose unco-operative attitude caused the Australian federation to withdraw funding to his 17-year-old sister Sara. In addition to that, just when Tomic had appeared to be calming down after an at times chaotic career came the July incident when he was arrested in Miami for refusing to leave a penthouse beach house party which had been the subject of complaints from neighbouring guests.

A bit like Tomic perhaps, after a slow start, Evans began enjoying this one so much that he didn't want to leave. After racing through the first set 6-3, nicking the second one in a tie-break, then going a double break up in the third, the Stuttgart-born 22-year-old found that his opponent had no intention of going quietly. Inspired by a raucous Glasgow crowd, Evans' burst of inspired tennis gave him the third-set breaker by a 7-4 scoreline - the final point secured in a breathless exchange of volleys at the net - before he nearly repeated the Houdini act in the fourth set.

Double break down again, Evans got one of them back then sprinted off for an impromptu toilet break before one last effort to stay in the match at 4-5. A lengthy point in the opening rally of the game sapped what was left of his strength and this time he couldn't find the answers. His day was done when a Tomic groundstroke clipped the net and landed in, only for a wrongfooted Evans to shovel the ball into the tramlines.

Both men required treatment, Tomic for an abdominal problem and Evans for his knee, factors which could yet become crucial in the matches each man has to play. "When I went out to the opening ceremony I was a bit taken aback by how loud it was out there and they do spur you on when you are down," said Evans.

"It was very emotionally tough out there," said Tomic. "The crowd, the atmosphere, drains you every point, game. I was starting to get tired so I am happy I held it together in the end."