Bryan brothers give U.S. the lead over Australia in Davis Cup

Grass court or hard court, it didn’t seem to matter to Bob and Mike Bryan on Saturday when the brothers, after a mid-match lapse, gave the United States a 2-1 lead over Australia in their World Group Davis Cup first-round tie in Melbourne.

The Bryans beat Australia team captain Lleyton Hewitt — who came out of a short-lived retirement to replace Sam Groth —, and John Peers, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3, in doubles to put the Americans in front ahead of Sunday’s reverse singles. Hewitt had replaced an ill Nick Kyrgios in the Australian squad but didn’t play in either of the opening singles.

On Friday, John Isner beat Groth and Australia’s Bernard Tomic defeated Jack Sock to leave the tie level at 1-1. Isner is scheduled to play Tomic on Sunday, and Groth to face Sock, but those reverse singles lineups could change and result in another appearance by Hewitt.

U.S. captain Jim Courier thinks Hewitt will extend his return from retirement.

“The way Lleyton played I would think he would give himself consideration should there be a live fifth match, so we’ll be ready for that eventuality if it comes to pass,” Courier said.

Hewitt admitted he may reverse singles, and said it didn’t feel like he’d ever been away. Of course, retirements of less than six weeks can do that to a guy.

“Possibly,” Hewitt said when asked about playing Sunday. “I hit a lot of balls this week leading in, and I felt very comfortable with how I was hitting the ball.”

The weekend victors will play the winner of Croatia and Belgium in the quarterfinals.

Ahead of Saturday’s match, the court surface became somewhat of a controversy when the International Tennis Federation admitted that the Kooyong matches should have been played on hard courts, not grass.