Australia to face Russia in World Team Cup final

Erik Kirschbaum

Pat Rafter and Wayne Arthurs led Australia into the final of the $2.1 million World Team Cup on Friday with a doubles win over Germany after Australia had lost both singles matches.

Rafter and Arthurs beat Germany's Tommy Haas and David Prinosil 6-3 6-2 to give Australia a spot in Saturday's final against Russia in the tournament of the world's eight top nations, a warm-up event for next week's French Open in Paris.

Australia, Germany and Spain finished with identical 2-1 records in their four-team round-robin group but Australia advanced because they won more matches -- six wins and three losses compared with the five wins and four losses of both Germany and Spain.

Germany, who had lost to Spain earlier in the week, needed to win all three of their "Blue Group" matches against Australia on Friday to beat the 1999 tournament winners.

Backed by a boisterous home crowd of 6,500, Nicolas Kiefer got Germany off to a good start by beating Rafter, who is 11th in the ATP Champions Race, 1-6 6-2 6-4.

Haas kept German hopes alive with a 7-6 3-6 6-3 win over Lleyton Hewitt, who is fifth in the ATP Champions Race.

But Australia pulled off the one win they needed in the concluding doubles, disappointing the local crowd on a day of brilliant blue skies and hot temperatures.

Rafter and Arthurs broke open a tight match at 3-3 in the first set by holding serve after a 15-minute struggle for the seventh game and turning a 4-3 lead into a 6-3 6-2 rout.

Russia won the "Red Group" on Thursday with a 3-0 victory over Argentina.

"We definitely have got a good chance against Russia," said Hewitt, who will face Marat Safin in the singles.

"I'm looking forward to him. It's always good to play the best players in the world and he's definitely going to be one of the big ones next week in Paris. A good match will be good for us."

HOME ADVANTAGE
Hewitt said he felt he played well against Haas, ranked 17th in the ATP Champions Race. But he said the German was able to take advantage of the enthusiastic home crowd and the familiar culinary surroundings.

"I played well but he raised his game," Hewitt said. "I'm sure the crowd helped him. He plays well in Germany. I play well in Australia. It's the crowd and the food that helps. In Australia I tend to do well. It's the meat pies."

Rafter, who will face Yevgeny Kafelnikov on Saturday, said he had let the chance to defeat Kiefer slip away, losing the second and third sets after winning the first set 6-1.

"He was very ordinary in the first set and made a lot of unforced errors," Rafter said. "He picked up his game and I relaxed. I don't know why. I just started walking around, seeing what was going on."

Kiefer had trouble explaining his typically erratic performance.

"Why don't you ask what I did in the second and third sets?" he snapped when asked what had gone wrong in the first set. "I got a very slow start in the first set and got into my game in the second and third. The crowd was behind me and it helped."

In a strange twist, Rafter will face his doubles team mate Arthurs in the first round of the French Open next week.

"It's unfortunate when two Aussies have to play each other in the first round," said Hewitt. "But that didn't seem to affect them today in the doubles. They played well together."

Spain, who needed a 3-0 win over Sweden to progress, missed their chance when Sweden's Thomas Enqvist defeated Juan Balcells 4-6 7-6 6-4 to level the match at 1-1 on Friday.

Spain's Alex Corretja won the first match of the day, beating Magnus Norman 6-0 6-4. Spain also won the doubles, with Corretja and Alex Lopez Moron beating Jonas Bjorkman and Nicklas Kulti 6-3 6-3.