Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Groth win doubles for Australia in Davis Cup
Saturday 18 July 2015 18:22, UK
Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Groth kept Australia alive in their Davis Cup World Group quarter-final against Kazakhstan with a fighting doubles victory in Darwin on Saturday.
Cup warhorse Hewitt and Groth wrestled with the Kazakh pair of Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov before prevailing 6-4 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 in just shy of three hours.
The Australian pair were under pressure to win the pivotal doubles rubber after Kazakhstan won both Friday's opening singles to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five match tie on grass.
Hewitt is Australia's most successful player in the Davis Cup and took his total win-loss record to 57-19 in his 40th tie over 17 years.
"It's up there," Hewitt said when asked what the doubles victory meant to him.
"I haven't played too many doubles matches at 2-0 down when the pressure's on.
"Sam and I combined really well today. This is Grothy's first win in a live rubber, so it's fantastic to be out here to enjoy it with him."
Groth's powerful serve was crucial, but Hewitt's sharp returns proved to be the ultimate difference.
The Aussie pair broke serve five times and powered to victory after winning a titanic 71-minute second set in a tie-breaker.
"We didn't want it to be all over today," Groth said.
"Thankfully, Lleyton put me on his back and carried me there."
Captain Wally Masur now faces a dilemma whether to play Hewitt and/or big-serving Groth in Sunday's reverse singles ahead of youngsters Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis.
28-time winners Australia must win the two remaining singles matches to win through to the semi-finals.
The winner of the tie will face either France or Great Britain in September's semi-finals.
Argentina win
Argentina reached their 10th Davis Cup semi-final in 13 years on Saturday when they defeated Serbia in their World Group last-eight clash.
Carlos Berlocq and Leonardo Mayer sealed the crucial point with a 6-2 6-4 6-1 win over Viktor Troicki and Nenad Zimonjic in the doubles.
Belgium made their first semi-final in 14 years by seeing off Canada in Ostend.
Serbia were playing without world number one and recently-crowned Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic who opted to rest rather than make the trip to Buenos Aires.
On Friday, Mayer defeated Filip Krajinovic 6-4 6-2 6-1 while Federico Delbonis saw off Troicki 2-6 2-6 6-4 6-4 6-2 for a 2-0 first day lead.
