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Lleyton Hewitt and Alicia Molik ended their Hopman Cup singles campaign on a bright note as Australia defeated Kazakhstan on Thursday.
But it wasn’t enough to lift Australia into Saturday’s final, with Serbia topping group A to qualify.
Hewitt encountered few problems against world No.36 Andrey Golubev, winning 6-3 6-3 in just 63 minutes, before Molik secured the tie with a 6-3 6-2 win over Sesil Karatantcheva in the women’s singles.
In the day’s other tie, Belgium’s Justine Henin, playing her first tournament in almost six months after recovering from a career-threatening elbow injury, defeated fellow former world No.1 Ana Ivanovic 6-4 6-3 in 76 minutes.
But world No.3 Novak Djokovic snared a 6-3 6-2 win over Ruben Bemelmans to send Serbia into the final.
Hewitt, whose ranking slipped to 54 after a hand injury in September ended his 2010 campaign, was impressive in his three singles outings, defeating Bemelmans in straight sets before putting up a fighting display in a 6-2 6-4 loss to Djokovic.
“I played him at the French Open a couple of years ago and he’s a great shot maker, so it was important for me to go out there and weather the storm against him,” Hewitt said after his win over Golubev.
“But not get too far back either where he can feel like he’s getting a lot of mid-court balls that he can dictate play and put me on the defensive. It was a bit of a balance for me.
“I felt like I was able to be aggressive when I needed to.”
Hewitt said he was pleased with how he was progressing after his lengthy layoff.
“I’ve come off a four or five-month lay-off … and to be able to strike the ball like I did with Novak a couple of nights ago, I was pretty happy with that,” Hewitt said.
“And I think Rochey (coach Tony Roche) and I took a lot of positive and good signs from that and I’ve been able to continue that on.
“That’s going to be the game plan next week going into Kooyong again and getting another three tough matches.
“Hopefully that’s going to be the perfect preparation for me (for the Australian Open).”
Henin said she was pleased with how quickly she had regained her touch after her absence.
“When you feel like that it’s an amazing feeling on the court,” Henin said.
“I had a good fighting spirit … and the motivation was high. I wanted to win this match.
“I’m really happy the way I played.”
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