Lleyton Hewitt and Chris Guccione won the doubles rubber to give Australia a 2-1 lead against Roger Federer's Switzerland in the Davis Cup world group playoff tie Saturday. With the tie level at 1-1 after Friday's singles matches, Hewitt and Guccione came back strongly after losing the first set to defeat the Beijing Olympics gold medal winning pair of Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5). Australia will need one more victory from the remaining two rubbers Sunday to return to the elite world group for the first time since 2007. Teenager Bernard Tomic will take on Federer while Hewitt will play Wawrinka in the reverse singles matches Sunday. In Romania, Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek made sure the Czech Republic stays in the Davis Cup World Group next year after winning its doubles match Saturday against Romania to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the series. The pair, who had won their singles matches Friday, teamed up to beat Horia Tecau and Marius Copil on a clay court at the Centrul National de Tenis. Defeat means that Romania will play in Euro/Africa Group I in 2012. Spain, Argentina strong Rafael Nadal buried the disappointment of his US Open loss to put Spain within reach of the Davis Cup final Friday, but champion Serbia was facing elimination after an injury blow ruled out world No. 1 Novak Djokovic. Nadal thrashed Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-0, 6-1 before David Ferrer defeated Gilles Simon 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 at the Cordoba bullring as Spain led France 2-0 in their semifinal. In Belgrade, where Serbia was facing Argentina, Djokovic was pulled from his scheduled clash against David Nalbandian, blaming fatigue and a back injury he suffered in the brutal final in New York. Nalbandian defeated Victor Troicki, who replaced Djokovic, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 before former US Open winner Juan Martin Del Potro eased past Janko Tipsarevic 7-5, 6-3, 6-4, his third career win over the Serb, as the South Americans also led 2-0. Hantuchova crashes out Top seed Daniela Hantuchova was sent crashing out of the WTA Bell Challenge tournament Friday, losing 6-4, 6-4 to unseeded Kiwi Marina Erakovic. The evening match featured an all-Czech contest as sixth-seeded Barbora Zahlavova Strycova defeated compatriot Andrea Hlavackova 6-3, 7-5. In other matches, Michaella Krajicek of Netherlands beat crowd favourite No. four seed Rebecca Marino of Canada 6-1, 6-3 and No. 3 seeded Tamira Paszek of Austria downed Britain's Heather Watson 6-4, 7-6 (7/5). Pervak wins WTA title Russia's Ksenia Pervak won her first WTA title in Uzbekistan Saturday with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Eva Birnerova in the final of the Tashkent Open. The 20-year-old top seed eased to her first title without dropping a single set here all week. Pervak started the year as world No. 97, winning here on a ranking of 52 and is set to improve on her career high mark of 51.
