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India keep Hopman Cup hopes alive

Sania Mirza of India puts her feet up as she watches her doubles partner Rohan Bopanna playing Peter Luczac of Australia in Perth, Australia, yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

Sania Mirza helped India keep their Hopman Cup hopes alive yesterday, winning both of her matches to seal a 2-1 victory over hosts Australia in their Group B tie.

Mirza and teammate Rohan Bopanna, beaten by the US on Saturday, prevailed in the deciding mixed doubles rubber, after Bopanna lost his singles match.

To reach Friday's final, India will need to beat the Czech Republic tomorrow, and hope Australia can upset the US on the same day.

Australia can reach the final if they sweep the US and the Indians are beaten.

Mirza claimed a crucial win over Australia's Alicia Molik in a closely fought match, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, before teaming with Bopanna to defeat Molik and Peter Luczak in a thrilling three-setter, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (13/11).

"I think it was very important for us to win today -- we can still qualify," Mirza said.

"Hopefully we will play well against the Czechs -- we beat them last year. We didn't have a great start the other day, but we are playing well now," she said.

The mixed doubles win was the Indian pair's fifth in as many outings in Australia.

Bopanna is ranked 267th in singles, but is a gifted doubles player and dominated the deciding match in its early stages with his stellar net play and big serve.

The Indians seemed to be cruising to victory when they were leading 4-2 in the second set, but the Australians scrambled back to level the match.

Both sides had match points in the deciding match tie-break, before Mirza sealed the victory with a winner.

"I have no energy left, it is almost mental relief," Mirza said. "I think we played really well and especially Rohan in the first set and a half. I think they were a bit surprised by him."

Mirza said she hoped her singles win over Molik would inspire the India cricket team, who start the second Test against Australia at the SCG today, having been thrashed in the first Test.

Molik was coming off an impressive win over Lucie Safarova on Saturday, but Mirza was able to blunt her trademark powerful serve and claimed the first set with three breaks.

Mirza dropped away slightly in the second set and started to make unforced errors, and the 26-year-old Australian picked up her game significantly to level the match.

Molik handed Mirza an early break when she shanked an overhead well wide early in the third set. The 21-year-old Indian then raced to a 5-1 lead and seemed set for an easy win.

Molik however saved three match points on her own serve in the seventh game and then immediately broke back with some of her best winners of the match, but Mirza steadied herself and served out the match on her second attempt.

The 79th-ranked Luczak was too good for Bopanna in the men's singles, winning 7-6 (7/2), 6-3.

ADELAIDE

AFP, ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA

Top seed Lleyton Hewitt cruised to an emphatic straight-sets victory over Israel's Dudi Sela in his first match at the Australian men's hardcourt championship in Adelaide yesterday.

The former world No.1, now ranked 21, had few problems in disposing of the 64th-ranked Dudi, winning 6-2, 6-2 in just 66 minutes before his home crowd at Memorial Drive.

The former Wimbledon and US Open champion broke Sela's serve in the opening game on his way to a four-game winning streak before Sela got on the scoreboard by winning the fifth game.

But the 22-year-old Israeli found Hewitt's groundstrokes and precision too much, with the Australian powering to the opening set in 35 minutes.

Hewitt, whose first ATP victory came as a 16-year-old wildcard at this tournament in 1998, broke Sela's faltering serve in the opening game of the second set and again strung together the first four games on his way to a consummate victory.

Hewitt will next play Argentina's Jose Acasuso, who ousted Colombian Alejandro Falla in straight sets.

GOLD COAST

AFP, GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA

Top seed Nicole Vaidisova survived a first-round scare from Australia's Casey Dellacqua, winning in three sets at the Australian Women's Hardcourt tennis tournament on the Gold Coast yesterday.

The 18-year-old Czech looked out of sorts and made loads of unforced errors against the 78th-ranked Australian wild card, but hung on to win the match, 5-7, 7-5, 6-0.

AUCKLAND

AFP, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND

Greek player Eleni Daniilidou showed strong early season form as she easily disposed of Elana Baltacha in Auckland yesterday in the first round of the Auckland Classic women's tennis tournament.

Seventh-seed Daniilidou, a two-time champion in New Zealand, impressed in disposing of her British opponent 6-1, 6-2 as the first round finished with the loss of another seed, Michaella Krajicek.

The Dutch No. 4 seed was dumped out of the tournament and joins Emilie Loit of France, the eighth seed, who was bundled out on Monday.

In a day of mostly lopsided affairs, Krajicek fell to Italian Sara Errani in a three-set marathon 5-7, 7-6 (7/4), 2-6 in a match lasting three hours 23 minutes.

Errani fought back from 2-4 to take the first set before squandering two match points in the second.
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