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Cape Town - South Africa and Bulgaria are level at 1-1 after the first day's play of their Europe/Africa II Davis Cup tie at Kevin Grove Club.
This is after South Africa's Ruan Roloefse lost 7-5, 7-5 to Dimitar Kuzmanov in the second singles rubber on Friday afternoon.
The 26-year-old Kuzmanov, ranked No 324 on the ATP rankings, proved just too strong for the 29-year-old Roeloefse, who is ranked 681 in the world in singles.
Roelofse looked like he could take the match into a decider when he led 4-2 in the second set, but he dropped serve twice at the tail-end to surrender the match.
Earlier on Friday, Lloyd Harris gave South Africa a winning start when he defeated Alexandar Lazarov 6-4, 6-7 (3/7), 6-3.
It was a far from perfect performance from Harris, the world No 113, who lost his serve three times in the match.
Harris appeared to be coasting when leading by a set and 2-0, before the 502nd-ranked Bulgarian launched a comeback.
The doubles and reverse singles will be played on Saturday's final day.
Raven Klaasen, ranked eighth in the world in doubles, will be partnered by Roelofse (273 doubles) with the visitors naming Alexander Donski (507 doubles) and Gabriel Donev (994) as their doubles pair.
Game, set, match! Bulgaria take the second match of the day as Kuzmanov defeats @ruanroelofse in a tightly contested affair 7-5, 7-5. What a great day of tennis down at Kelvin Grove! #DavisCup ???????? pic.twitter.com/SLgjyyyZw8
— Tennis South Africa (@TennisSA) September 13, 2019
