{"id":6018,"date":"2013-04-08T06:58:13","date_gmt":"2013-04-07T22:58:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=6018"},"modified":"2013-04-08T06:58:13","modified_gmt":"2013-04-07T22:58:13","slug":"tomic-seals-victory-for-australia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2013\/04\/08\/tomic-seals-victory-for-australia","title":{"rendered":"Tomic seals victory for Australia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bernard Tomic has completed an impressive Davis Cup return as Australia clinched victory over Uzbekistan on Sunday to advance to September\u2019s World Group play-offs.<\/p>\n

Tomic defeated Uzbek No.1 Denis Istomin 4-6 6-2 6-2 6-3 in the opening reverse singles match to give Australia an unassailable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five rubber Asia\/Oceania Group I second round tie.<\/p>\n

> find more information on the Australia v Uzbekistan tie page<\/a><\/p>\n

It capped a welcome return for the top-ranked Australian on clay in Namangan, with the 20-year-old also defeating Farrukh Dustov on Friday to get Australia off to a strong start.<\/p>\n

Lleyton Hewitt and Matt Ebden secured a crucial doubles win in five sets on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The win ensures Australia will get a shot at returning to the competition\u2019s top tier for the first time since 2007.<\/p>\n

Tomic was able to take advantage of a tiring Istomin, who was playing for the third straight day and spent four hours on court in the gruelling doubles loss.<\/p>\n

The tough Uzbek claimed a tight first set but from there it was all Tomic as he stamped his authority on the choppy Pahlavon Sport Complex court.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe played some of the best tennis I\u2019ve seen him play,\u201d Rafter told AAP<\/em> after the match.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo play two great matches in a row now, that was really important for him \u2026 Everything went perfectly, it\u2019s actually ridiculous how it was. I\u2019m very proud of the guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rafter\u2019s side will face a yet-to-be-determined opponent on 13-15 September, with the winner qualifying for the World Group in 2014.<\/p>\n

Australia has lost at the play-off stage in five of the past six years but the performance in Uzbekistan has Rafter confident a well-balanced team is capable of ending the drought.<\/p>\n

Matosevic was gallant in a four-set defeat to Istomin on Friday.<\/p>\n

Uzbekistan\u2019s reliance on their top two meant Australia was able to employ smart tactics, with the decision to rest regular spearhead Hewitt from the opening day\u2019s singles working out.<\/p>\n

Follow all the action from the 5\u20137 April tie on Twitter.\u00a0@tennisaustralia<\/a>\u00a0will keep you up to date with scores, news and photos as the tie unfolds.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Draw<\/h3>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/strong>Friday 5 April<\/strong> \u2013 10am (4pm AEDT) <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R1<\/td>\nBernard Tomic (AUS)<\/td>\nd<\/td>\nFarrukh Dustov (UZB)<\/td>\n7-6(6) 6-4 6-4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R2<\/td>\nDenis Istomin (UZB)<\/td>\nd<\/td>\nMarinko Matosevic (AUS)<\/td>\n7-6(1) 6-4 3-6 6-4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/strong><\/strong>Saturday 6 April<\/strong> \u2013 12pm (6pm AEDT)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R3<\/td>\nLleyton Hewitt\/Matt Ebden (AUS)<\/td>\nv<\/td>\nFarukh Dustov\/Denis Istomin (UZB)<\/td>\n7-5 6-7(4) 6-4 3-6 6-3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>Sunday 7 April<\/strong> \u2013 10am (3pm AEST)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R4<\/td>\nBernard Tomic (AUS)<\/td>\nd<\/td>\nDenis Istomin (UZB)<\/td>\n4-6 6-2 6-2 6-3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
R5*<\/td>\nFarrukh Dustov (UZB)<\/td>\nv<\/td>\nMarinko Matosevic (AUS)<\/td>\n\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
*The reverse singles line-ups could change prior to the beginning of play.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bernard Tomic has completed an impressive Davis Cup return as Australia clinched victory over Uzbekistan on Sunday to advance to September\u2019s World Group play-offs. Tomic defeated Uzbek No.1 Denis Istomin 4-6 6-2 6-2 6-3 in the opening reverse singles match to give Australia an unassailable 3-1 lead in the best-of-five rubber Asia\/Oceania Group I second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5894,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6018\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}