Australia wins doubles, still trails Kazakhstan 2-1 in Davis Cup

Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Groth kept Australia’s Davis Cup hopes alive with a straightset victory over Kazakhstan’s Andrey Golubev and Aleksandr Nedovyesov in Saturday’s doubles, although the visitors still lead that quarterfinal tie two matches to one.

Playing on grass at the Marrara Sporting Complex in the northern Australian city of Darwin, Hewitt and Groth constantly threatened the Kazakh duo’s service games, creating 15 breakpoint chances and converting five of them in the 64, 76 (74), 62 victory.

The tie will now come down to Sunday’s reverse singles.

If Australia’s Nick Kyrgios defeats Mikhail Kukushkin in the first match, then Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nedovyesov will square off in a decisive fifth rubber.

Kazakhstan, which competed in the Davis Cup’s World Group for the first time in 2011, is looking to book its firstever semifinal berth.

The Central Asian nation has reached the Davis Cup quarterfinals on three occasions, most recently last year, when it led eventual champion Switzerland 21 before Kukushkin and Golubev lost the final two singles matches to Stanislas Wawrinka and Roger Federer, respectively.

Australia, a traditional tennis powerhouse, has captured 28 Davis Cup titles, second only to the United States’ 32 championships.