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Squeezing through Kucera leads Slovak Republic past Switzerland
Posted: Thursday October 14, 1999 08:48 PM
PERTH, Australia (AP) -- Karol Kucera fought off a gallant challenge from little-known Ivo Heuberger as the Slovak Republic went on to claim a 2-1 victory over Switzerland at the Hopman Cup mixed teams tennis tournament Tuesday. France defeated South Africa by the same score. After Sandrine Testud had been beaten 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 by Amanda Coetzer. France rallied as Guillaume Raoux took advantage of eight double faults from an out-of-touch Wayne Ferreira to win 6-3, 7-5, and then joined with Testud to claim the decisive mixed doubles 7-6 (8-6), 7-5, winning on their seventh match point. Ferreira received a warning in the highly competitive doubles, although it was the French pair who repeatedly complained to tournament referee Peter Bellinger about calls they felt were not made correctly by the electronic line calling system. The tournament is unique in using magnetic lines under the court and metal particles in the balls to detect where the ball lands, with linespeople used only on the service line to detect foot-faults and at the net. Kucera rallied to beat Heuberger 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 to put the defending champions on level terms after Martina Hingis had swept aside Karina Habsudova 6-0, 6-3 in 43 minutes. Switzerland, with Hingis the holder of all four Grand Slam doubles titles, were favorites to win the decisive mixed doubles, but Heuberger dropped serve three times in the opening set to put the Slovak Republic on their way to a 6-4, 6-0 upset. Heuberger, ranked 129th and with only one victory in his last nine tournaments, took himself within sight of a massive upset against the world No. 8, sneaking the first set when Kucera double-faulted and staying on course until 4-4 in the second. Heuberger's big serve and willingness to come to the net kept the erractic Slovak under pressure, as Kucera only occasionally showed glimpses of his talent with some superbtouch play and flashy passing shots. But a double-fault from Heuberger gave Kucera a vital break for 5-4, and although the 22-year-old Swiss recovered to lead 2-0 in he deciding set he was unable to maintain the challenge. Hingis dropped just seven points in the first set, and although she had to work harder in the second, a break for 5-3 was enough to earn her victory. In Wednesday's matches, the Australian team of Mark Philippoussis and Jelena Dokic face the Spanish pair of Carlos Moya and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, and the Slovak Republic plays Jonas Bjorkman and Asa Carlsson of Sweden. The round-robin event consists of two groups, and each team plays three times to determine who will contest Saturday's final. Group A consists of Spain, South Africa, Australia and France. Group B is made up of the United States, Slovak Republic, Sweden and Switzerland.
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