Emirates Arena, 1000 London Rd, Glasgow, Glasgow City G40 3HG, UK, 19 September 2015 | AAP

Bernard Tomic has hung tough to put Australia back on level terms with Great Britain in their Davis Cup semi-final in Glasgow.

Tomic resisted a spirited fightback from Dan Evans to deny Britain’s surprise selection 6-3 7-6 (7-2) 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 in a three-hour thriller after local hero Andy Murray drew first blood for the hosts with a straight-sets win over Thanasi Kokkinakis.

Murray’s win added to the pressure on Tomic, but the world No.23 responded with a composed and ultimately courageous performance to keep Australia in the best-of-five-rubber tie.

Tomic was a heavy favourite against Evans, but did lose their only previous meeting at the US Open two years ago.

Riding the momentum of Murray’s win, and the home-crowd support, the underdog was out to seize on any nerves from the Australian No.1.

Tomic arrived with his game face on, though, and steamed through the opening set in 27 minutes before breaking the Englishman in the first game of the second set.

Tomic invited Evans – and the raucous crowd – back into the contest when he dragged two forehands wide to hand the break back in the sixth game as Evans pushed the set to a tiebreaker.

Tomic kept his nerve to roll through the breaker to seemingly regain control.

He seemed poised to be back in the locker room inside two hours after racing to a 3-0 lead and then serving for the match at 5-3.

But Evans produced some inspired tennis to somehow claw his way back into the match and snatch the third set as Tomic began to fatigue.

Tomic, though, hasn’t built an impressive 15-2 win-loss record in the competition for nothing and stayed cool to finally shut Evans out after two hours and 57 minutes, his 27 aces the most telling stat of the match.