Hopman Cup hosts keep final hopes alive
Leyton Hewitt
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Hopman Cup hosts Australia bounced back from their shock opening defeat to Romania to beat the USA after Sam Stosur and Lleyton Hewitt recorded authoritative singles victories.
World no.13 Stosur condemned Melanie Oudin to a second consecutive straight sets defeat in Perth to recover from her surprise loss to Sorana Cirstea – the world No.45 – in Australia’s opening tie.
Hammering down 14 aces, Stosur dispatched the diminutive US Open quarter-finalist 6-2, 6-4 in just seventy minutes and began to look every inch the player that had propelled herself to a career-high ranking in 2009.
Stosur was happy to banish memories of her opening round-robin defeat to Cirstea, where she failed to capitalise on winning the opening set against the Romanian. “I thought I played pretty well today so I am very happy,” Stosur said.
“I have been working on my serve the last few months and I think I am starting to see the improvement and consistency regularly. I tried to mix it up and thought I hit the corners pretty well.”
Teammate and former world No.1 Hewitt produced an equally assured display, overcoming the imposing figure of 6ft 9ins Jon Isner with a 6-1, 7-5 win to ensure an unassailable 2-0 lead.
Despite succumbing to an Aussie onslaught in the singles, the American duo did manage to earn their first rubber of the tournament in the mixed doubles. Losing the first set, Oudin and Isner fought back to gain a 2-6, 6-1, 10-5 consolation victory.
But after finally notching up only their first of six possible rubbers victories, the pair’s hopes of winning the Hopman Cup for the USA for a sixth time were convincingly ended.
Australia’s victory keeps them in contention for a spot in Saturday’s final, but the host nation will need to beat Spain – the only team in the competition yet to lose a rubber – in their remaining Group A tie and hope results elsewhere go their way.
