Britain in pole position

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:58

Great Britain, the number three seeds, recovered to claim a come-from-behind 2-1 win after 15-year-old Laura Robson lost the opening rubber to Sabine Lisicki 7-6 (7/5) 6-3.

Andy Murray took only 57 minutes to level the tie when he dispatched Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4 6-1 before completing the comeback with a 6-3 6-2 win alongside his partner in the mixed doubles.

It sent the Britons top of the group with an unbeaten record from their two ties, and they had been expected to be joined by Russia when they met Kazakhstan, the lowest-ranked nation at the tournament, in the night session.

The number two seeds had looked to be on course when Elena Dementieva bounced back from her opening-match loss to Lisicki with a comfortable 6-3 6-1 win over Yaroslava Shvedova.

But Kazakhstan, who were only narrowly beaten by Great Britain in their opener, fought back gamely, with world number 133 Andrey Golubev scoring a shock win over an out-of-sorts Igor Andreev 6-4 6-3.

The Kazakhs then completed the upset in the mixed doubles with a 7-6 (7/4) 6-4 win to give themselves an outside chance of reaching Saturday’s final.

But Great Britain are in control of the group as the only unbeaten team and victory in their final pool match against Russia on Friday would send them through.

Russia know they need to win to go through while hoping surprise package Kazakhstan do not defeat winless Germany 3-0 in a tie at the same time under the Burswood Dome.

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