The Britons were handed a lesson in doubles tennis by Jurgen Melzer and Julian Knowle, who wrapped up a 6-4 6-3 6-1 victory to leave Austria with a 2-1 lead going into Sunday's reverse singles.

British captain John Lloyd had decided to play Hutchins to save Andy Murray, who was suffering from a slight abductor strain, for Sunday's match against Austria's number one Melzer. Now, if Britain are to have hopes of retaining their status in the elite 16-nations world knockout group, Murray must win to set up what could be an excruciatingly tense decider between Alex Bogdanovic and Austrian number two Alexander Peya.

Peya is ranked two places below the British number two at 164 in the world, but he has been in the world's top 100 and despite losing in straight sets to Andy Murray on Friday, he showed he will be no pushover.

Lloyd said afterwards: "I thought it would be closer but Austria were always the favourites. Our boys are disappointed.

"They didn't play as well as they can. But it's all about winning three matches, and we still think we can win the match."