Germany oust United States

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:11

Having suffered a surprising 3-0 whitewash by Slovakia in their opening contest, the American pairing of Meghann Shaughnessy and James Blake needed wins to stand any chance of progressing from Group A to the final.

Sabine Lisicki got the Germans off to an ideal start with a tough three-set victory over Shaughnessy.

Lisicki dropped the first set before winning 12 of the last 16 games to emerge a 4-6 6-0 6-4 winner.

Blake then kept the USA in the contest with a marathon 6-7 (3/7) 7-6 (9/7) 6-4 win over Nicolas Kiefer in two-and-a-half hours.

Kiefer took the first set and held match points in the second-set tiebreak, but Blake dug deep to keep his dream of a third Hopman Cup alive.

Keeping up with the other matches, the decisive mixed doubles rubber also went the distance with the Germans eventually winning the third-set tiebreak 10-7 to seal a 6-3 3-6 7-6 success.

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