The opening tie of the 2011 Hopman Cup saw host nation Australia (Alicia Molik & Lleyton Hewitt) defeat 3rd seeds Belgium (Justine Henin & Ruben Bemelmans), keeping them well in contention in Group A.
With top seeds Serbia in the group, both teams knew that a win tonight was vital for their cup chances.
The match began with some troubled serving and shaky ground-strokes from both players, resulting in five straight breaks of serve. Molik was unable to gain an advantage through her normally dominant serve, whilst Henin was not keeping her usually reliant backhands in the court.
At 3-2, both had clearly made more errors than winners, in an uncharacteristic start from both players.
However, Henin soon held her serve to go up 4-2 and never looked back. Greater backhand control from Henin saw Molik forced into hitting shorter shots, setting up easy finishes for the Belgian star.
The first three games of the second set all went to Henin, who appeared to have outclassed Molik in all areas.
But Molik ended Henin's four-game run with an unprecedented three straight games of her own. Molik played her greatest points by far in the sixth game of the set, breaking Henin to love with one backhand winner followed by two forehand winners.
The Australian strung together winner after winner to draw level, finding herself with two break points at 3-all.
Yet Henin pushed ahead with more dynamic play, while punishing the Molik second serve. When Henin stole what looked like a certain Australian game, the pressure got to her opponent, who rapped her racquet hard against her feet in frustration.
Henin continued to keep her cool to finish off the match, her first after an injury spell dating back to last year's French Open.
The men's singles, featuring Australia's top mens player in Lleyton Hewitt against new Belgian talent Ruben Bemelmans, was expected to see the hosts level the tie at 1-all.
Bemelmans, however, put in a strong display - the feature of the match being aggressive rallies and lengthy games.
As with the previous match, both serves started off weakly, with both men losing their opening serves. Serving continued to be a less prominent feature of the match, with low first serve percentages.
But what was lacking in the serving department was made up for with some solid ground-stroke action from both players. Bemelmans played in a league above his 174 world ranking, forcing the former world number one Aussie to play hard.
Hewitt managed to remain one step ahead of the young Belgian, even though he was usually the one on the back foot, with his experience on the court shining through.
In the end, the 6-4 6-3 to Hewitt scoreline didn't do much justice for the tightness of the match, one that both men can take a lot of positive elements from.
The deciding mixed doubles match began in the favour of the Belgian duo after an error-ridden Molik service game gave Henin and Bemelmans a break, putting them ahead 3-1.
From that, Bemelmans made the net his own, cutting off the Australian cross-court attempts. He was joined by a confident serve-volleying Henin at his side. The pair put on a dominant display, forcing the more experienced Australian pairing into error after error.
Belgium quickly raced away to take the set 6-1 in just 21 minutes, demonstrating some unexpected chemistry for a couple that hadn't had much doubles experience - let alone playing together.
But in the second set the host nation fought back with some solid returns on the Bemelmans serve, giving them the break to go 3-1 ahead.
From there, the Aussies kept ahead with far more consistent tennis than was seen in the opening set to take the 2nd 6-3 and send the match into a championship tie-breaker.
The crowd was silenced by a Belgian lead of 4-2 at the first change, with some aggressive tennis being played . But once again Australia came back to make it 6-6 on the next change in the race to 10.
Neither side looked convincing during the tiebreaker, until a magic Alicia Molik backhand return put the Aussies one point from victory at 9-8.
When Bemelmans put the ball into the net on the Hewitt serve, the crowd erupted as Australia completed a comeback to remember.
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Australia's next tie is against favourites Serbia on January 4.
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