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Australia have recorded a dominant 3-0 victory over Slovakia in the Davis Cup world group playoffs, sending them back into the world group for 2017 and turning Sunday’s singles matches into an effective dead rubber.
After Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic both won their respective matches against Andrej Martin and Jozek Kovalik in straight sets on Friday, the doubles pairing of Sam Groth and John Peers didn’t have things all their own way.
It was however, a dominant start for the Australian duo playing against Martin who was backing up from singles and Igor Zelenay that left the Slovakians with far too much work to do, despite making a fist of the comeback.
The pairing of Groth and Peers raced out to a two-set lead hardly looking challenged by the Slovakian pair, who were busy defending their serve and left with almost no chance of breaking Australia.
Sam Groth had his serve booming down and Peers, who is an incredibly skillful and experienced doubles player controlling the net and backing up with his own serve.
The third set brought around a change of fortunes though, with barely a point won against either serve and things ending up in a tie-breaker.
Slovakia got a mini break early though and held on to force a fourth set and win the tie-breaker 7-3.
Australia continued a trend that started in the third set though, with Groth and Peers really seeming to ease off the gas and struggle to dominate as they did through the first two sets.
The fourth was more of the same though, with neither side able to break the other or even get opportunities although, heading into another tie-breaker with Slovakia seemingly on top of the match.
As soon as the pressure ramped up though, Martin and Zelenay couldn’t get their serve right and everything else that had been working suddenly failed with Groth and Peers putting in some cracking shots to take the final tie-breaker 7-2.
Following up from the dominant singles win, it was a fantastic afternoon for Australia and they now get to enjoy what will be two three set matches tomorrow. Whether Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios play is also up in the air with Sam Groth a chance to get a crack at singles.
After being sent into the world group playoffs by the United States of America at Kooyong earlier in the year, it’s a massive win for Australia and they will hope to make a better fist of their campaign in 2017.
For now though, it’s time to celebrate with the Davis Cup world group playoffs tie wrapped up before the reverse singles.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde