PERTH, Australia - Sorana Cirstea and Victor Hanescu beat Australia's Samantha Stosur and Lleyton Hewitt 7-5, 6-1 Saturday in mixed doubles to give Romania a 2-1 win in the opener of the Hopman Cup teams tennis tournament.
Earlier, Cirstea beat Stosur 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in singles to give Romania a 1-0 lead before Hewitt leveled with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2) win over Hanescu.
Top-seeded Australia will now likely have to beat the other two teams in its pool if it is to advance beyond the round-robin stage.
Stosur is ranked 13th and Cirstea No. 45 in singles. The Romanian had lost twice in straight sets to Stosur previously.
“I wasn't in good shape at the beginning but then it got better and better,” Cirstea said of her singles match.
“After I won the second set and she broke me in the first game of the third set, I was like 'OK, not again'.
“At one point I said 'I have nothing to lose, I'm the one coming from behind' and I definitely enjoyed it.” Hewitt said he had not played in three months, “so the first match of the new year was always going to be tough.” “Victor's an extremely tough player, he likes to dictate play from the back of the court and he served extremely well close to the line, so it was hard for me to get any rhythm against him,” Hewitt added.
“But I'm glad the match went three sets because I got better as the match got on.” The United States, represented by US Open quarterfinalist Melanie Oudin and John Isner, plays Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Tommy Robredo of Spain in the only match Sunday indoors at the Burswood Dome.
Britain, with Andy Murray and Laura Robson, plays its first match Monday against Kazakhstan. Germany takes on Russia, also on Monday.
Australia, Spain, Romania and the US are playing in Group A, while Russia, Britain, Germany and Kazakhstan make up Group B. The winners of each group play in next Saturday's final.
