Australia take decisive lead

Arthurs said he struggled to find rhythm on his big left-handed service, but he still came up with 39 aces.

It was cruel reward for Prinosil, who is shouldering the full workload for Germany at the tie and has to back up in Saturday’s doubles and again in Sunday’s reverse singles.

Prinosil felt he had played better than Arthurs, but lost the last point. Arthurs had lost three separate match points against Prinosil, but the winning break came in the final game of the fifth set when he had the German down 0-40 on his service.

The contest was over for Prinosil when he put a smash out on the fourth match point.

Arthurs faces the prospect of missing out on Sunday’s reverse singles to Pat Rafter, who may be called up by Australian captain John Newcombe should he come through Saturday’s doubles rubber unscathed.

The second match was in sharp contrast to Hewitt’s dynamic win over Kohlmann in the first singles rubber.

The victory lifted Hewitt’s Davis Cup singles record to 7-2 since his debut against the US last July in Boston.

“I played unbelievable today. I was seeing the ball well right from the first point and everything went to plan and I couldn’t have played any better,” said Hewitt.

“Obviously, playing for your country and in front of your home town crowd, being the number one singles player in the team and being the first match and trying to get us off to a good start you’re always going to be a little bit anxious.

“But once I got out there I felt great and I felt at home.

Hewitt had few problems against the 26-year-old German, who came into the team when Rainer Schuttler withdrew on Thursday with a calf strain.

Czechs retain team

LOS ANGELES: Czech captain Jan Kukal will stick with the players who earned the quarter-final tie with the United States, pitting Jiri Novak and Slava Dosedel against US powerhouses Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras.

Sampras will open the tie against Novak, who won three matches in Czech Republic’s opening tie against Britain.

The two have met once before, when Novak lost to Sampras in the fifth set of the second round of the 1996 US Open.

Dosedel, who lost his only singles match in the first round tie in Ostrava in January, joked he’d use a little gamesmanship against World No 1 Agassi.

“I’ll make a few phone calls tonight so he won’t sleep so well,” he smiled when asked about his strategy against the man who has won three of the last four Grand Slam titles.

Kuerten worried

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil’s Gustavo Kuerten admitted has that the Rio de Janeiro heat bothered him as much as quarter-final opponents Slovakia.

“They say that the heat can help us but that’s not really true,” Kuerten said on Thursday ahead of the weekend quarter-final tie. “It is bad for everyone.”

The draw pitted Kuerten against Karol Kucera in the second of the opening singles. The tie will open with a rubber between Argentine-born Brazilian Fernando Meligeni and Dominik Hrbaty.