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Posted at 12:51 a.m., Thursday, January 3, 2008

Tennis: Serena helps U.S. advance to Hopman Cup final

Advertiser Staff

PERTH, Australia — Serena Williams and Mardy Fish won singles matches to give the United States a victory over Australia today and a spot in the Hopman Cup mixed teams tennis final.

The U.S. finished with a 3-0 round-robin record in Group B and was the only unbeaten team. Tomorrrow's final will be America's ninth in the 20-year history of the tournament.

Williams beat Alicia Molik 6-2 7-6 (7) and Fish beat Peter Luczak 7-6 (5), 7-6 (10), in singles. The Americans then made it a 3-0 score when they beat Molik and Luczak 6-2, 6-3 in mixed doubles.

In another Group B match today, the Czech Republic beat India 2-1, leaving both teams with a 1-2 round-robin record.

Lucie Safarova beat India's Sania Mirza 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 and Tomas Berdych downed Rohan Bopanna 6-4, 6-0 to give the Czech Republic the win. India came back to win the mixed doubles 6-3, 6-2.

Serbia was to play Argentina while France was to face Taiwan in later Group A matches today to determine the other finalist. A win by Serbia, the only unbeaten team in the group, will advance it to the final.

Williams broke Molik's serve to open the match, but had more difficulty in the second set, failing to capitalize on seven break-point opportunities. The match ended when Molik double-faulted on match point.

Williams became upset with her play in the final set, throwing her racket to the court after failing to break Molik's service in the final game before the tiebreaker.

"It was a match in itself," Williams said of the second set. "Alicia played well, it was very tough out there."

Fish was grateful to win a tight match. "I could have lost in straight sets," Fish said.

"My game is to play aggressive, stay at the baseline," added Fish. "But I served great today — 25 aces will usually get the job done."