Leave it to Lleyton Hewitt and Roger Federer to keep their teams in the Davis Cup.
Thomas Enqvist gave Sweden a 1-0 lead Friday over defending champion Australia, defeating Mark Philippoussis 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. But Hewitt stepped up and thrashed Davis Cup rookie Robin Soderling 6-4, 6-3, 6-1.
"I feel like I handled the situation very well," said Hewitt, the former ATP No. 1. The win was his 24th in Davis Cup singles, tying Adrian Quist's Australian record for singles victories. Quist won his last singles match for Australia in 1939.
PHOTO: AP
"It's not that easy when you're favorites and you go down in the first match."
In other World Group first-round matches it was: Czech Republic 1, Spain 1; Argentina 2, Morocco 0; France 1, Croatia 1; Netherlands 2, Canada 0; Romania 1, Switzerland 1; Belarus 1, Russia 1.
In Minsk, Belarus, Russia could feel fortunate to end the opening day 1-1 with Belarus.
PHOTO: EPA
Marat Safin was upset by Max Mirnyi 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5), 1-6, 4-6, 11-9 in a four-hour slog, only five days after losing the Australian Open final to Federer. Mirnyi won his 10th successive Davis Cup match for Belarus.
Russia's only point was a gift, when Vladimir Voltchkov was forced to retire with a twisted right ankle in the fourth set against rookie Igor Andreev. Voltchkov was leading two sets to one at the time, and Andreev was credited with a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), 5-7, 3-4 victory.
France and Croatia also split their opening singles in Metz, France. Arnaud Clement topped Mario Ancic 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, but Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic leveled the tie, beating Thierry Ascione 7-5, 6-4, 6-4. It was the first Davis Cup match Clement has won in straight sets.
"I would not get so carried away as to say it was one of the best Davis Cup matches I played, but maybe the best of the year," he said.
In Agadir, Morocco, Argentina won both opening singles and was set to win its first away tie in four years at the expense of injury-stricken Morocco.
First, Davis Cup rookie Guillermo Coria beat Mounir El Aarej, the replacement for the injured Younes el Aynaoui, 6-1, 6-1, 6-4, then David Nalbandian won against Hicham Arazi when the Moroccan strained his leg and retired. Nalbandian was leading 4-6, 6-1, 7-5, 2-1 at the time.
If Arazi -- who beat Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski in a Cup tie last September -- can't play Saturday's doubles, Argentina is virtually certain to advance to the quarterfinals.
In Brno, Czech Republic, Tommy Robredo defeated Radek Stepanek 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7) to draw the Czech Republic 1-1 and ease Spanish worries.
Spain, the 2003 Davis Cup runner-up starting without the injured Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya, fell behind 1-0 when Jiri Novak defeated rookie Rafael Nadal 7-6 (2), 6-3, 7-6 (3).
Nadal is the youngest man ever to play for Spain, at 17.
In Maastricht, Netherlands, the host team took a 2-0 lead over Canada. Sjeng Schalken defeated Frank Dancevic 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 and Martin Verkerk beat Simon Larose 6-4, 7-6 (9), 4-6, 6-3.
US Versus Australia
US captain Patrick McEnroe took a chance on Robby Ginepri, and it paid off when the Davis Cup rookie beat Jurgen Melzer 6-7 (6), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 Friday to give the US a 1-0 lead over Austria.
Ginepri won a five-set match for the first time as a pro, in the World Group first-round tie.
US Open champion Andy Roddick played Stefan Koubek in Friday's second match.
The odds didn't look good for Ginepri after losing the first two sets against Melzer. Perhaps realizing his predicament couldn't get much worse, Ginepri began swinging more freely. He also eventually solved Melzer's left-handed serve, picking up a break in the first game of each of the last three sets.
Melzer, meanwhile, tightened up and grew increasingly frustrated. By the last set, he would follow lost points by kicking the ball into the net or drop-kicking his racket to the court.
Trying to end the US Davis Cup drought -- the country's last title came in 1995 -- McEnroe chose to go with Ginepri, a 21-year-old rookie in the competition. McEnroe bypassed James Blake, Mardy Fish and Taylor Dent, who have a combined 10-7 career record in Davis Cup matches.
McEnroe picked Ginepri because of recent play. He is ranked a career-best 25th -- 51 spots better than Melzer -- after reaching the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time at the Australian Open last month.
And perhaps McEnroe had this in mind, too: Ginepri's only ATP Tour title came with a victory over Melzer in the final at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships at Newport, Rhode Island, in July.
That match was outside on grass, and this was indoors on a hard court.
Ginepri looked as if he might run away with the first set -- and the match -- by winning 12 of the first 13 points en route to a 3-0 edge. But serving at 5-3, the American lost a set point when Melzer laced a beautiful backhand slice drop shot.
A drop volley helped Melzer earn his first break point of the match, which Ginepri handed over with a double-fault to make it 5-4. Ginepri bounced his racket off the court, sat down at the changeover bench, and covered his face with a white towel.
In the set's tiebreaker, Melzer took a 6-2 lead, then wasted four set points. Then, at 6-6, Ginepri's double-fault conceded a set point, and Melzer converted it by snapping off a backhand volley winner.
Melzer went ahead by two sets by breaking Ginepri at 5-4 in the second. Ginepri put a forehand into the net, then sent a backhand wide.
The silence in the arena was punctured only by the clapping of about a dozen Austrian fans clad in red and white.
Ginepri took control of the third set by breaking to 3-2 when Melzer sailed a backhand long. When Ginepri won the fourth set, he jogged off the court to take a bathroom break, accompanied by the loudest applause of the match.
Return this
Andy Roddick set the record for fastest serve in a match by whipping one 241.3 kph (150 mph) in Davis Cup play.
The American did it in the eighth game of a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory Friday night over Stefan Koubek of Austria. Koubek actually got his racket on the record-setting serve, but he couldn't put the ball over the net.
Earlier, Roddick's second serve of the match also registered 241kph (150mph) on the courtside speed meter, but the ball landed out for a fault -- which doesn't count as a record.
The US Open champion broke the record of 239kph that he shared with Greg Rusedski.
Roddick hit a serve at that speed during a victory over Andre Agassi at the Queen's Club tournament in June. Rusedski set that standard in 1998.
Robby Ginepri beat Jurgen Melzer 6-7 (6), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 in Friday's other match to help the US take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five first-round series.
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