On the court, that meant a 0-2 opening day deficit against Kazakhstan. Only eight times in world group history has a team recovered to win from this position.

Thanasi Kokkinakis lost the opening quarter-final match 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 to accomplished Kazakh No.1 Mikhail Kukushkin, which was unfortunate but not wholly unexpected. The greater surprise, and disappointment, was to follow, when a listless Nick Kyrgios was outplayed 7-6, (7-5), 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 by world No.115 Aleksandr Nedovyesov despite serving for a two sets-to-one lead.

Kyrgios appeared to lack energy and spark for much of the match, and broke a racquet at a changeover after failing to capitalise on a surge of momentum, and 5-3 lead, in the third set. After losing the resulting tiebreak, he declared: "I don't want to be here." And so, at times, it seemed.

"I don't think I was having that much fun out there to be honest, and I was struggling to find myself in the match," he admitted, saying only his serve was working as he would have liked.

"I didn't really think I found that balance of enjoying myself and playing some good tennis."

The 20-year-old later admitted he was prepared physically but not mentally, after a difficult few months, while the stunned Australians, heavy pre-tie favourites, were left to regroup for Saturday's must-win doubles rubber to be contested by veteran Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Groth.

"I almost felt a bit drained out there, it was hard to focus, it was hard to really dig deep, it was hard to really push myself," said Kyrgios. "It's a lot going on."

For Australia, from here on, a lot will need to, although captain Wally Masur insisted the tie was not yet lost.The first quarter-final since 2006 is the first cup tie ever played in the Northern Territory, but it was the visitors who adapted better to the custom-built grasscourt, Masur admitting he had scratched his head watching the new generation on the old surface and wondered if it had been the right choice.

Certainly, Kukushkin looked like a more natural grass-courter than Kokkinakis, who was regularly pushed back behind the baseline as his opponent dictated terms with deep, low groundstrokes.

"I think maybe a little bit for me was a better surface than for my opponent today," said the 28-year-old Kazakh, a finalist at the Sydney International.

In just his second live Davis Cup rubber, and first at home, Kokkinakis was left devastated by his two-hour-plus loss to Kukushkin, but what was a k-heavy tongue-twister in a verbal sense was not a practical problem to which the Adelaide teenager could find a solution.

"I didn't play great and he played well," said Kokkinakis, who served streakily and lacked rhythm, and was consoled later by Masur.

"He just told me it's one match. I'm taking it pretty hard at the moment, it's pretty disappointing, but it's what it is.

"When you lose, you kind of let yourself down, and the team as well, so that's the disappointing part of it.

"There was a little bit of pressure there for sure, but he had some as well. "He just played better than me, really, that was the bottom line."