Moscow: Dmitry Tursunov put Russia into the Davis Cup final after holding off Andy Roddick 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 17-15 and giving his country a 3-1 lead over the United States on Sunday.
James Blake was to face Marat Safin in a meaningless final match.
The Russians will host Argentina in December in their first Davis Cup final since they beat France in 2002 for their only title.
The 72 games tied a record for the most played in a World Group match since the tiebreaker was introduced in 1989, set when France's Arnaud Clement defeated Switzerland's Marc Rosset in the 2001 quarter-finals.
Sunday's match lasted four hours, 48 minutes.
"When you're coming up on the five-hour mark, I promise you, neither one of us is feeling fresh. Especially when you add in the tension and nervousness of the Davis Cup," Roddick said. "I think I could just as easily have won as lost."
Roddick struggled from the start on the clay court at the Olympic Stadium, losing his first service game. He lost again on his second service game in the second set, but broke back in the eighth game.
Roddick won only three points in his opponent's first five service games in the third set, but he held serve and broke the Russian at 6-5 to avoid a tiebreaker and stay in the match.
As Roddick gained confidence and Tursunov seemed to falter, they traded service wins until the Russian netted an easy forehand and Roddick converted his third break point with a backhand volley to take a 5-3 lead.
In the 32-game final set, both players survived scares and held serve until Tursunov netted an easy forehand to go down 30-40 in the 11th game. He saved one break point, but hit two shots wide at deuce.
Tursunov then broke back to even it at 6-6 when Roddick sent a return wide after saving one break point.
The two then traded service wins until Roddick netted a forehand slice to give Tursunov his fourth match point. The Russian sent a backhand down the line for the victory.
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"You feel like you let your teammates down and your country down," Roddick said. "It's not an easy thing, especially to fight back all that way and to lose. It's tough."
Tursunov, who was knocked out of the US Open in the third round and struggled with his backhand in Saturday's doubles, was an unexpected pick for Russia coach Shamil Tarpishchev.
Nikolay Davydenko is Russia's best clay-court player, but he withdrew from the Chinese Open last weekend with dizziness, and Tarpishchev instead picked Safin to play Roddick in the opening singles.
Asked whether he had been surprised to face Tursunov, Roddick said: "Ah, yes."
"To be honest, he played a lot more consistently than I though he might," he said.
"I don't know if I could tell you what made the difference. I think I could just as easily have won that as lost that (match)."
Safin beat Roddick 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (5) and Youzhny beat Blake 7-5, 1-6, 6-1, 7-5 on Friday, putting the US squad down 2-0. The last time the US rallied from a 2-0 Davis Cup deficit was in 1934 against Australia.
On Saturday, Bob and Mike Bryan overcame Youzhny and Tursunov with little trouble, reviving US hopes with a commanding 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win.
Roddick called Tursunov's recovery after the doubles loss "a real testament to how much he's improved as a tennis player."
The semi-final was played at the same venue where Pete Sampras won all three of his matches on clay in 1995 to help the United States capture its 31st Davis Cup title. Russia, which had never beaten the United States, is unbeaten at home since losing that final.
"We're going to have to figure out how to get past the away-tie-on-clay roadblock -- and more specifically, I'mgoing to have to figure it out," Roddick said.
The US has come back from a 2-1 deficit five times -- including twice in 2000, when Andre Agassi and Chris Woodruff won their reverse singles in the first round against Zimbabwe, and Pete Sampras clinched against the Czech Republic in the next round after Agassi made it 2-2.
Argentina beat Australia in the other semi-final.
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