Perth: Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and teammate Tomas Berdych won their singles matches in straight sets on Wednesday to lead the Czech Republic to a 3-0 win over the United States at the Hopman Cup.
Kvitova opened with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Berdych beat Mardy Fish 6-3, 6-3. Berdych saved four break points while serving for the match before converting his first match point to ensure the Czechs won their second straight match at the eight-country tournament.
Berdych and Kvitova made it a clean sweep when they beat Mattek-Sands and Fish 6-3, 7-5 in mixed doubles. The extra point that the winners earned could help determine the final placings in Group A, where the Czechs are strong favourites to qualify for Saturday's final.
The Americans, which have won the Hopman Cup a record six times, fell to 0-2 after losing to Denmark in their opening match. Both Mattek-Sands and Fish have been part of winning US teams before, but have come up short in the 24th edition of the tournament.
The Czechs and Denmark play each other on Friday, featuring a women's singles encounter between No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki and the second-ranked Kvitova, while the US plays Bulgaria.
"I'm happy that I won, but first still I have a lot of space for improvement because I didn't feel very comfortable on the court," said Kvitova, who could take over the top ranking from Wozniacki before the Australian Open if the Czech player wins the Sydney International next week.
Berdych, like Kvitova, has won both singles matches. He beat Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria on Monday.
"We are not in the final yet, so we still need to do well one more time," said Berdych. "We are working well on the court."
Earlier on Wednesday, Tsvetana Pironkova and Dimitrov came back from a set down to win the deciding mixed doubles and complete a 2-1 Bulgaria victory over Wozniacki and Frederik Nielsen.
The Bulgarians won the mixed doubles 3-6, 6-4, 10-1 in the tiebreaker, leaving both teams with 1-1 records in Group A.
Wozniacki had given Denmark the lead when she beat Pironkova 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 but Dimitrov leveled for Bulgaria, beating Nielsen 7-6 (5), 6-2.
Wozniacki beat Mattek-Sands in straight sets in her first singles match on Monday just hours after arriving from Thailand.
On Wednesday, she and Pironkova both struggled with their serves and Wozniacki was given a code violation for receiving coaching from her father during the seventh game of the third set.
"It was a tough match. I like to give the spectators a little bit of value for their money," Wozniacki said. "I'm not a real morning person so 9:30 is pretty early for me."
Nielsen put up stiff resistance in the first set before Dimitrov dominated in the second.
"It was definitely a tough match today. The guy was attacking at every opportunity," Dimitrov said. "I got a bit lucky on some shots. He played some great tennis."
In final Group B play on Thursday, France and Spain, both 2-0, play each other, with the winner to advance to the final. Australia takes on China in a match involving winless teams.
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