Ivo Karlovic earned Croatia a Davis Cup quarter-final place with a straight-sets win over Go Soeda in the decisive final rubber of their tie against Japan.
Croatia went into the final day holding a 2-1 lead but Kei Nishikori levelled for Japan by beating Ivan Dodig 7-5 7-6 (7/4) 6-3 in the first of Sunday's reverse singles.
That left the tie resting on the experienced Karlovic's clash with Soeda, but the world number 43 took the first set on a tie-break and powered clear to win 7-6 (7/4) 6-1 6-4 and see his side through to a last-eight tie in Argentina.
It was Karlovic's third victory of the tie and Croatia captain Zeljko Krajan said: "The way Ivo is playing at the moment, it's going to be tough for any team to beat Croatia.
"The statistics tell the story: He played two singles matches and didn't face one break point."
He had words of comfort for the beaten Japanese, though, saying: "Japan has a great team, especially with how Kei's played in the last month, and they will surely go on to win matches in the World Group."
Argentina had secured their progression on Saturday by opening up a 3-0 lead over Germany, and Juan Ignacio Chela extended their advantage with a 7-5 7-5 win over Florian Mayer before Eduardo Schwank lost 7-6 (7/1) 7-5 to Cedrik-Marcel Stebe.
Serbia will next travel to the Czech Republic after Janko Tipsarevic eased them to victory over Sweden with a straight-sets win in Sunday's first match.
Tipsarevic beat Michael Ryderstedt 6-2 7-6 (7/5) 7-5 to see the 2010 champions into a winning 3-1 lead before Dusan Lajovic added a 6-4 6-4 dead-rubber win over Filip Prpic.
Captain Bogdan Obradovic said: "It's never easy to play matches in which you are the odds-on favourite but the players dealt with the pressure really well against Sweden.
"With a bit of luck, we will reach this year's final and hopefully take on Spain because we are confident that we can beat them on home soil."
The Czechs beat Italy 4-1, Lukas Rosol and Italy's Simone Bolelli trading dead-rubber wins over Andreas Seppi and Frantisek Cermak respectively.
Austria clinched victory over Russia when Jurgen Melzer beat Alex Bogomolov Jr 6-2 6-4 6-1 in Sunday's first rubber, before Igor Kunitsyn earned a consolation win over Andreas Haider-Maurer to leave the Austrians as 3-2 victors.
They are into the quarter-finals for the first time in 17 years but they face a tough task progressing any further.
In April, they will have to travel to defending champions Spain, who completed a 5-0 whitewash of Kazakhstan as Nicolas Almagro beat Evgeny Korolev 6-3 6-4 and Marcel Granollers saw off Andrey Golubev 6-3 6-7 (2/7) 6-3.
The United States were also 5-0 winners over a strong Switzerland side. Debutant Ryan Harrison beat Michael Lammer in back-to-back tie-breaks and John Isner was also a straight-sets winner over Marco Chiudinelli after leading Swiss pair Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka had failed to make an impression on the first two days.
The Americans will next travel to France, who reached the quarter-finals for the third year running by beating Canada 4-1 in Vancouver.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated Frank Dancevic 6-4 6-4 6-1 in the first singles match of the day to seal the triumph.
Gael Monfils then brushed aside Vasek Pospisil 6-4 6-4 in a dead rubber to make the scoreline more emphatic.
