Argentina, who were runners-up to Spain last year, looked on course for a 2-0 lead heading into Saturday's doubles when Juan Monaco took a twosets to one lead in the other singles match against Tomas Berdych.
In no time, though, Simon had won the next twosets and put one of Federer's longest-standing records in jeopardy: Before the match, he had reached at least the quarterfinals at 35 consecutive major events.