Argentina had won the opening singles matches on Friday and captain Alberto Mancini had hoped to seal the tie on Saturday. He used his best player, world No. 7 Nalbandian, in the doubles after he had won easily on Friday.
"We were on our way to victory, but we couldn't pull through,'' Mancini said.
But after a doubles match that lasted 3 hours, 37 minutes, Nalbandian might have to summon his reserves in the first reverse singles on Sunday. He's scheduled to play the top Russian, sixth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko.
The loss was Nalbandian's first at home since his 2002 Davis Cup debut, giving him a 26-7 record.
In the second reverse singles, Juan Martin del Potro is expected to meet Igor Andreev. Argentina is trying to avenge its loss to Russia in the 2006 finals.
The winner of the semifinal will face either Spain or defending champion United States. Spain leads their semifinal 2-1.
After comfortably winning the first two sets, Kunitsyn and Tursunov came back from 3-0 down and a set point at 4-5 to force a tiebreaker. In that, the Russians had three match points at 6-3.
Canas rubbed out the first with a winner down the line, Nalbandian's backhand scraped the clay on the baseline on the second, and Tursunov netted a backhand on the third, causing the Parque Roca Stadium crowd to erupt in joy.
Argentina then had three more set points but needed a fourth at 10-9 to finally win the set on a Canas volley.
Argentina won the fourth set and led 3-1 in the fifth.
The home pair appeared to have all the momentum, but Canas and Nalbandian lost their serves. The decisive break came in the 13th game, when Canas unloaded two double-faults to lose serve. Tursunov held and won on Russia's fifth match point.
Mancini remained optimistic.
"On paper, we're exactly where we wanted to be: 2-1.''
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Associated Press writer Eric Weil contributed to this report.
Argentina leads Russia 1-0 in Davis Cup semis
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