Australia take surprise lead over Switzerland

Federer upset at ‘horrendous’ line call in Davis Cup tie.

SYDNEY:

Australia’s doubles pair of Lleyton Hewitt and Chirs Guccione upset Olympic gold medal duo Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland to take the lead in their Davis Cup World Group playoff tie.

Hewitt and Guccione battled to a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 win over the Swiss pair, to give the hosts a 2-1 advantage in the best-of-five play-off.

After a slow start, the Australians put in a brilliant performance in a match Hewitt described as one of his best. However, Federer later said that he felt that a line call at 2-2 in the second set was the turning point in the match.

“It was a horrendous call,” said Federer. “It was a huge turning point in the match and it was unfortunate that something like this was necessary to give the Aussies momentum, but I thought they played well.”

The world number three said he felt ‘completely beat up’ following the doubles loss. The current round of matches began just days after the end of the US Open, which left Federer and Wawrinka deeply fatigued.

“Our chances to win now are extremely slim obviously, with Wawrinka not feeling well and I’m completely beat up too,” admitted Federer.

Meanwhile, India’s Mahesh Bhupathi came to his team’s rescue as he teamed up with Rohan Bopanna to keep their chances alive in the tie against Japan.

The pair scored a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 win over Tatsuma Ito and Yuichi Sugita to bring the score to 2-1.



Published in The Express Tribune, September 18^th, 2011.