TENNIS NEWS:RUSSIA AND Britain both had to come from behind to open their Hopman Cup campaigns with wins over lower-seeded rivals at the Burswood Dome in Perth yesterday.
Second-seeds Russia fought back to claim a 2-1 victory over Germany in their opening tie after world number five Elena Dementieva suffered an upset defeat to Sabine Lisicki 6-4 6-1.
Igor Andreev then steadied their challenge when he continued his personal dominance over Philipp Kohlschreiber winning 6-3 6-7 (7/2) 6-3 – the eighth time in as many career meetings the Russian has beaten his rival — before Russia clinched the tie 6-4 7-6 (8/6) in a closely-fought mixed doubles.
Britain survived a scare against the eight-nation tournament’s lowest seeds Kazakhstan when they claimed the mixed doubles in a third-set tiebreaker.
Tournament rules state the third set of the mixed doubles is decided by the first team to reach 10 points with a two-point advantage, and the British pairing of Laura Robson and Andy Murray edged the tense finale to win the tie 6-2 5-7 7-6 (12-10).
The third seeds had fallen behind when the 15-year-old Robson failed to capitalise on winning the first set of her match with a flu-ridden Yaroslava Shvedova, going down 6-4 4-4 0-6.
World number four Andy Murray then quickly levelled matters as he breezed past Andrey Golubev 6-2 6-2 in 61 minutes.
It was an impressive return to the court for Murray as he begins his preparations for the Australian Open which begins in Melbourne on January 18th.
The 22-year-old lost just one point on his service in the opening set and barely needed to raise a sweat as Golubev meekly surrender the match with a double fault.
The tournament continues today when hosts Australia and USA will look to register their first wins of the tournament before their Group A rivals Spain and Romania play each other in the night session.
The winners of each group progress to the final which will be played on Saturday.
Louk Sorensen, meanwhile, has given Irish tennis a massive boost by qualifying for the main draw of a top-tier ATP Tour event for the first time in his career.
Sorensen yesterday achieved a long-standing ambition with a 6-2 6-7 (6/8) 6-2 win over Yuki Bhambri of India at the €275,000 Aircel Open in Chennai, India.
Now the Ireland player, ranked 293 in the world, finds himself in the 32-strong draw along with Sweden’s number eight-ranked Robin Soderling, who beat Roger Federer last week, and Croatia’s 14-ranked Maric Cilic, conqueror of Andy Murray in last year’s US Open.
And Conor Niland went tantilisingly close to emulating the performance of his Davis Cup teammate in the €710,000 Exxon Open, in Doha, Qatar.
After overwhelming Spain’s 168-ranked Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the second round of the qualifying series, the 288-ranked Limerick lost 1-6 6-1 7-6 (7/4) to Belgium’s 122-ranked Steve Darcis after one hour 58 minutes.
After being broken by Darcis at 4-4 in the final set, Niland showed battling qualities to break back straight away for 5-5. But an early mini-break in the tie-break proved crucial for the Belgian, who failed to convert a match point at 6-3 in the 13th game.
