Czech Republic beat Hewitt, Australia team at Hopman Cup – Pavlyuchenkova upsets Swiss seed in Brisbane

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Daria Gavrilova of the Australia Green team hits a return against Sabine Lisicki of Germany during their fi rst session women’s singles match on day one of the Hopman Cup tennis tournament in Perth on Jan 3. (AFP)
Daria Gavrilova of the Australia Green team hits a return against Sabine Lisicki of Germany during their fi rst session women’s singles match on day one of the Hopman Cup tennis tournament in Perth on Jan 3. (AFP)

BRISBANE, Australia, Jan 3, (AP): Lleyton Hewitt lost just weeks away from his retirement as Czech Republic beat the Australia Gold team at the Hopman Cup mixed teams event Sunday. Jiri Vesely defeated Hewitt, who will retire after the Australian Open, 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-4 before Karolina Pliskova came from 3-1 down in the second set to beat Jarmila Wolfe Gajdosova 7-5, 6-3 at Perth, Western Australia. The Czech team won the later mixed doubles 6-2, 7-5 to sweep the match 3-0. “Jiri is a quality player and deserved to win, but it was just good to come out here for the fi rst game of the year and get a tough match,” Hewitt said.

“Hopefully I can come out for the rest of the week now and get better from here to get ready for the rest of the summer.” Hewitt, a two-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1, has already been named Australia’s Davis Cup captain and will be in charge of the team against the United States in the fi rst round of World Group play from March 4-6 at Kooyong in Melbourne. For the fi rst time in the Hopman Cup’s 28-year history, Australia is being represented by two teams. Earlier, Nick Kyrgios broke Alexander Zverev’s service at 3-3 in the deciding set for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win, giving his Australia Green team the winning edge over Germany.

Russian-born Daria Gavrilova beat Sabine Lisicki 6-2, 6-2 to give the Australian side the early lead, and Kyrgios and Gavrilova later combined for a 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 (match tiebreak) win in mixed doubles to complete a 3-0 win. The 18-year-old Zverev, at 83rd, is the youngest player in the top 100 in ATP rankings. “I really like the kid,” the 20-yearold Kyrgios said. “He’s got a great future ahead and he’s a great athlete for his size and moves well and serves big.” On Monday, Serena Williams and Jack Sock of the United States play Ukraine, while Andy Murray and Heather Watson lead Britain into its match against France.

At the Brisbane International, former Australian Open fi nalist Dominika Cibulkova overcame Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer, recovering from 4-3 and 0-40 down on her serve in the third set to win 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Cibulkova missed four months of competition last year to undergo Achilles tendon surgery. The Slovakian will next face the winner of the fi rst-round match between former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and eighth-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy, who upset Williams in the US Open semifi nals last year, ending Williams’s attempt at a calendar- year Grand Slam. In other fi rst-round matches Sunday, Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky, at No. 5, became the fi rst seeded player eliminated when she was beaten by Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a 2013 fi nalist in Brisbane, 6-2, 6-1.

American Varvara Lepchenko defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 6-2, 6-1 to set up a meeting with last year’s Wimbledon fi nalist Garbine Muguruza, who is seeded second. In an all-French matchup, Alize Cornet beat Kristina Mladenovic 6-3, 6-4 and Andrea Petkovic of Germany defeated Brazil’s Teliana Pereira 6-1, 6-2 in the fi nal match of fi ve fi rst-round matches on the opening day. Top-seeded Roger Federer and second- seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan have fi rst-round byes in the men’s draw at Brisbane. Defending champion Maria Sharapova could play her fi rst-round match on Tuesday.

Federer might not play until Wednesday, and when he does he’ll have former No. 3 Ivan Ljubicic as his coach for the fi rst time. The 17- time Grand Slam champion hired the Croat to work alongside head coach Severin Luthi in 2016 after Stefan Edberg opted not to continue with a third year in Federer’s camp. “What I like about him, he’s very direct he lets you know what he sees and thinks,” Federer told Australian Associated Press. “We train very well together. He’s got good insight. He’s played against a bunch of players that I’ve played against. We played against each other over 15 times as well so he knows my game very well.”

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