Sydney, Sept 19: Stanislas Wawrinka needed only four minutes Monday to complete a 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-3 win over Australia's Lleyton Hewitt and send Switzerland into the elite World Group at the Davis Cup next year.
Wawrinka led 5-3 in the fifth set Sunday when darkness suspended the 3-hour 58-minute match. On Monday, on a grass court at Royal Sydney Golf Club, Wawrinka broke Hewitt's serve and the official match time became 4:02.
On Sunday, Roger Federer defeated Bernard Tomic 6-2, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 to pull Switzerland level at 2-2 after Australia won Saturday's doubles and the teams split the opening singles on Friday.
Australia, which has won the Davis Cup 23 times, second only to the United States' 32 titles, will spend a fifth year out of the top competition.
The country has been knocked out of the World Group several times in recent years due to frequent injuries to Hewitt and the retirements of Mark Philippoussis and Pat Rafter, who now is the Australia captain.
Next year, Australia will again be forced to compete in zonal qualifiers in the Asia/Oceania region for the chance to re-enter the Davis Cup main group in 2013. The draw for regional qualifying in 2012 will be held Wednesday in Bangkok.
Hewitt came to the court on Monday with a heavily strapped right knee and was cheered by a small group of spectators who had turned up for the unexpected extra day.
Wawrinka also had an injection to play because of a foot problem.
Hewitt took a 30-0 lead but appeared to be struggling on court, with two double faults and two unforced errors ultimately costing him the game and the match.
The home side had targeted wins against Wawrinka and chose the grass court surface because it did not apparently suit Wawrinka's game.
On Sunday, Rafter, a two-time U.S. Open singles champion, wanted the match to be suspended early in the second set, and was seen complaining with the tournament referee on several occasions.
“You are always fighting with the umpire and I don't want to get upset with him,” Rafter said. “But if you don't the referee will obviously just get what he wants so I feel like I've got to make a point.”
Federer also said the match could have been suspended earlier.
“It's a tough call,” Federer said. “I've lost some big matches in the past due to darkness and I always have the feeling that referees leave it a bit too late. They try to squeeze in another couple of games so should they have stopped at two-all (in the fifth set)? Probably, that's my guess.”'
Rafter had an earlier verbal altercation with the chair umpire, Alexandre Juge, for failing to turn off a let cord alarm that went off at the wrong times.
“Take it off now or I'll rip the bloody thing off,” Rafter told Juge. AP
