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| Wednesday, March 28 |
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| Hewitt, Australia breeze by Ecuador Associated Press | |||
PERTH, Australia -- Australia will face
Brazil in the Davis Cup quarterfinals after completing a 4-1
victory against Ecuador by winning Sunday's two reverse singles
matches.
Teen-ager Lleyton Hewitt secured the tie for Australia when
he beat Ecuador's No. 1 Nicolas Lapentti 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 in the
first match.
Patrick Rafter, who had the option to stand down, then beat
Lapentti's younger brother Giovanni 6-3, 6-1 in the dead fifth
rubber to give Australia a 4-1 victory before announcing he
planned to shave off his beard and long hair for charity.
"It's got nothing to do with if I sweat or don't sweat or
anything like that," said Rafter, whose hopes of winning last
month's Australian Open were ruined when he suffered cramping in
his semifinal with Andre Agassi.
"It's about raising some money for the kids."
The Lapentti brothers upset Todd Woodbridge and Wayne
Arthurs in an epic five-set doubles match on Saturday to keep
the tie alive after losing both of Friday's singles matches.
But the effort clearly drained them and they had little left
on Sunday with Nicolas conceding defeat to Hewitt in just 82
minutes.
The Australians will travel to South America in April to
face the Brazilians in a repeat of last year's semifinal in
Brisbane.
Australia won that tie to reach the final against Spain but
are expecting a much tougher meeting this time round.
"Personally, I don't think it can get any worse than Spain,
but a few people have mentioned it could be a couple of times
worse," Hewitt said.
"It will be interesting for us." Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories | |
ALSO SEE Brazil wins tie 4-1 to set up repeat of last year's semi Germany takes both singles matches to advance France routs Belgium 5-0 Sweden edges out Czech Republic 3-2 Dutch complete 4-1 victory against sorry Spain Switzerland swamps United States out of Davis Cup Kafelnikov comeback gives Russia 3-2 Davis Cup win Ecuador upsets Australia in epic doubles match Davis Cup results | |
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