MOSCOW, Sept 26 - Russia have discovered a new Davis Cup hero in Dmitry Tursunov.

Tursunov beat Andy Roddick in an epic five-set battle on Sunday to give the hosts the winning point against the United States and a place in the Davis Cup final for the first time in four years.

The California-based Russian prevailed over the U.S. number one 6-3 6-4 5-7 3-6 17-15 after an almost five-hour marathon on Moscow clay in the semi-final.

On Monday, Russian newspapers hailed the modest 23-year-old as the country's hero.

"Dmitry Tursunov wrote his name into the history books," said the headline in the respected daily Izvestia.

"Dmitry would have been given the Order of Courage for his heroics 11 years ago," said the influential Kommersant Daily, referring to the feat of Andrei Chesnokov in the 1995 Davis Cup semi-final against Germany.

Chesnokov saved nine match points against former Wimbledon champion Michael Stich at the same Olympic Sports Complex in Moscow to lead Russia into the final.

Later that year, then Russian President Boris Yeltsin, a big tennis fan, awarded Chesnokov the Order of Courage, one of the country's highest honours.

Mikhail Youzhny has been widely regarded as Russia's Davis Cup hero ever since he clinched his country's first title, winning an equally memorable five-set tussle against France's Paul-Henri Mathieu in the 2002 final in Paris.

FORGOTTEN MAN

Youzhny, then 20, replaced an ageing and out-of-shape Yevgeny Kafelnikov for the fifth and deciding rubber and became the first player in the 102-year history of Davis Cup to win a match in the final after losing the first two sets.

This time it was Tursunov who stepped in for Youzhny to take on U.S. Open finalist Roddick.

"It was only (on Sunday) morning I found out I was going to play," Tursunov, who was preferred to world number five Nikolay Davydenko, said afterwards.

"I didn't have much time to prepare, to work out a strategy. I had some ideas of how to play him...but in the fifth set I had no strategy, just tried to fight back."

After his move to the U.S. 11 years ago, the Moscow-born Tursunov became virtually a forgotten man for Russian tennis, which boasts a string of top players, both among men and women.

When he arrived in Moscow for the U.S. tie, Tursunov was well down the pecking order behind former world number one Marat Safin and U.S. Open semi-finalists Youzhny and Davydenko.

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