David Nalbandian crushed Mark Philippoussis in straight sets to give Argentina the early lead in the Davis Cup semi-final against Australia in Buenos Aires.

A disappointing Philippoussis fired up only briefly early in the third set before succumbing 6-4 6-3 6-3 to leave Australia trailing 1-0 in the best-of-five-match tie.

Australian No.1 Lleyton Hewitt needed to beat Jose Acasuso in the day's second singles rubber to leave the visitors with a realistic chance of advancing to this years Cup final.

However rain stopped play in that match with Jose Acasuso leading the Australian 1-6 6-4 4-6 6-2 4-0 when weather intervened.

Philippoussis, despite being ranked more than 100 places behind the world No.4 Nalbandian, had promised a dogfight.

But he surrendered the first two sets in signature fashion, coughing up a double-fault to suffer the only service break in the first set in the seventh game.

Nalbandian broke Philippoussis again with a sizzling backhand return winner to go 2-1 up in the second set before taking a two-set lead when the Australian struck a backhand long serving at break point down and 5-3.

Philippoussis, mixing brilliance with impatience, threatened a comeback when he broke Nalbandian in the third game of the third set as the Argentine crowd turned against the Australian following an incident the previous game.

Nalbandian was forced to duck to narrowly avoid being hit by a Philippoussis forehand drive and, visibly upset, the Argentine gestured aggressively to Philippoussis to bring it on.

Serving at 30-love, Philippoussis had to wait as the 14,000 spectators inside Parque Roca Stadium - now up on their feet hissing and booing - settled.

Showing great composure, Philippoussis immediately aced Nalbandian to go 40-0 up and then held serve with an overhead winner.

Nalbandian lured Philippoussis to the net with a drop shot winner the very next game and had more words with Philippoussis as the match finally came to life.

Philippoussis let out a roar of come on when he broke Nalbandian for the first time to grab a 2-1 advantage when the Argentine sliced a backhand long.

Alas, Nalbandian broke straight back and won four games in a row to race away with the match to triumph in one hour, 58 minutes.

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