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Australia received the battle however not the battle, bowing out of the ATP Cup regardless of beating Greece 2-1 of their remaining round-robin match.
Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas successfully scuppered the house nation’s slim hopes of constructing the semi-finals with a straight-sets win over Alex de Minaur.
Whereas Australia went on to say the tie with wins for John Millman and the doubles pairing of John Friends and Luke Saville, the facet’s 3-0 opening loss to Spain will weigh too closely towards them within the standings.
Spain will now be heavy favourites to progress to the semi-finals with a win or perhaps a modest loss to Greece, much more so if Rafael Nadal performs.
De Minaur displayed his common pluck and courtroom pace towards the world No.6 however Tsitsipas confirmed his high quality when it mattered to win 6-3 7-5.
The Australian recovered from an early break within the first set solely handy one other one over to the Greek who then closed out the set.
De Minaur had two set factors within the second set however when he did not capitalise, Tsitsipas broke the world No.23 and completed off the match on serve.
Earlier, Millman had an excessive amount of class for world No.462 Pervolarakis, successful 6-2 6-3.
Pervolarakis had completely examined the Queenslander throughout three units when the pair met on the similar match final yr however world No.38 Millman stayed in full management this time round.
Having fun with a double break within the first set, Millman secured one other early within the second.
The Cypriot-born Greek briefly threatened to grab the break again at 3-5 however Millman dug in to carry and take the match.
With the tie on the road, Friends teamed with Saville to tackle Tsitsipas and Pervolarakis.
A comparatively new mixture, they regarded sharp in taking the primary set earlier than dropping their manner within the second.
However Friends and Saville obtained their noses in entrance early within the tremendous tiebreak and have been by no means headed, happening to win the match 6-3 4-6 10-5.
“We’re all the time a robust crew unit collectively,” Friends mentioned.
“We’ll come out robust for the Aussie summer time. It was nice to see the boys struggle so laborious. Fingers crossed, they’ll recover from the road as soon as the Aussie Open begins.”
Australian Related Press
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