Sydney : Australia's Bernard Tomic came from a set down to beat Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 on Friday and give the host nation a 1-0 lead in their Davis Cup World Group playoff.
Wimbledon quarterfinalist Tomic converted 81 percent of his first serves and won all of his second-serve points on the grass court at Royal Sydney Golf Club to close out the opening singles match in 2 hours, 32 minutes.
No. 28-ranked Wawrinka, who is recovering from a foot injury sustained at the U.S. Open, made 14 unforced errors in the loss. Roger Federer resumes his long-running rivalry with Lleyton Hewitt in the second singles match later Friday.
Federer holds a 17-8 record over Hewitt, but the Australian former No. 1 claimed their last match -- played on grass last year in the final at Halle, Germany. No. 59-ranked Tomic started slowly and appeared to experience difficulty coming to grips with the uneven bounce of the grass court.
After serving his way out of trouble to move to 5-4 in the second set, Tomic broke serve to level the match at a set apiece. The seesawing third set featured three breaks of serve before Tomic held firm to take a set advantage. He held off a break point in the fourth game of the fourth set before breaking Wawrinka in the fifth and ninth games to go on and finish the match with a backhand down the line. The winner of the playoff takes a place in the Davis Cup World Group for next year, while the loser returns to play zonal qualifiers.AP
