Aus v US & WTA Mexico Malaysia

Today's Davis Cup tie at Kooyong between Australia and the USA did not feature Nick Kyrgios due to a bad virus, and that meant out of form Sam Groth had to face similarly big serving but more accomplished John Isner in the first match.  To no ones surprise the first set went with serve until a tie break was required.  What did raise more a few eyebrows was the number of break opportunities created by Groth.  Isner had the poise to squash these and proceed to take the first set.  Beyond that the contest was effectively over with the American living up to his ranking just outside the top ten.

The USA led the tie 1-0 and pressure was on Bernard Tomic to win his clash with Jack Sock, a player like Tomic seen as future top ten material and with a 3-0 record against the Aussie.

Tomic did his job, winning in four sets, and defying the Channel Seven commentators who constantly attacked his capacity to close out the match following his loss of the third set. It was irritating listening, and sad considering these were Australians not supporting their own, just throwing out unnecessary doubt.

Hard for Australia to win the tie, with the Bryan brothers so powerful in the doubles tomorrow.  Hoping for a surprise, and it could yet depend on Lleyton Hewitt returning from retirement to replace Groth who now has singles duties.

In women's tennis, Monterrey has seen the removal of top seed Sara Errani in the second round, losing to the famous Estonian star Anett Kontaveit, ranked 91 in the world.  The quarter final does have 3 remaining seeds featured, including the number two, Caroline Wozniacki, who prevailed over Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, the Croatian born in Germany and living in the US.  Caroline celebrated her first win since it must be when racquets were wooden, and maybe she will be back to some sort of form for Indian Wells.

Kuala Lumpa also has 3 seeds left for the quarters - Svitolina, Lisicki and Bouchard - and each of those has the potential to kickstart a good run and improve their ranking to a previous high.  Especially former Wimbledon finalists Genie Bouchard, currently ranked 52 (career high 5) and Sabine Lisicki, currently ranked 31 (career high 12).