Australia have won their Davis Cup tie against Czech Republic with John Peers and Sam Groth storming to a straight-sets win in the doubles at Kooyong.
Following the singles success of Jordan Thompson and Nick Kyrgios on Friday, Peers and Groth posted a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 win over Jiri Vesely and Jan Satral on Saturday to give Australia an unassailable 3-0 lead. The victory sealed Australia a Davis Cup quarter-final against Switzerland or the United States.
Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt said it was a fantastic team effort. “The boys came out and did all the hard preparation and it’s nice to know that all the hard work paid off,” Hewitt said. “It’s been a fantastic team effort and I couldn’t be prouder of these guys.”
Fresh from winning the Australian Open men’s doubles title with Finland’s Henri Kontinen, Peers and the big-serving Groth were a class above the inexperienced Czech combination. In the third set, the Australians didn’t lose a point on serve. The Czech team were rocked by injury on Thursday with veteran Radek Stepanek, who has won 18 doubles titles on the ATP tour, suffering an unspecified issue.
Singles specialists Vesely and Satral had no answer to the court nous of Peers, who is ranked sixth in the world in doubles, and Groth, who also frequently plays the format. The Australians got an early break to lead 3-1 and while Peers had an uncharacteristically poor service game to allow the Czechs to break back, that proved to be their only one of the entire match.
Australia broke world No.54 Vesely in the first game of the second set and never looked back. They were unstoppable on serve in the third set, wrapping up the match and the tie with ease.
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