Friday 8 January 2016 16:23, UK
Great Britain are out of the Hopman Cup despite whitewashing Germany in their final Group B match.
Heather Watson and Andy Murray pulled off a 3-0 win over Sabine Lisicki and Alexander Zverev to leave their place in the final resting on the outcome of Australia's match against France.
The British pair needed France to win, but the Australian team of Daria Gavrilova and Nick Kyrgios won a decisive doubles rubber 11-9 on a third-set tie-break to secure a 2-1 victory and a final against Ukraine in Melbourne on Saturday.
Watson and Murray redeemed themselves after defeat to the Aussies, Watson starting off proceedings with an impressive straight-sets win over former Wimbledon finalist Lisicki.
The British No 2 triumphed 6-3 6-4 for a third career win over her former training partner, breaking at 4-3 in the first set before serving it out to 15 and adding two further breaks in the second.
Murray then held his part of the bargain, seeing off Zverev 6-3 6-4 without undue alarm, although Zverev briefly threatened a comeback from 5-2 behind in the second.
A third straight-sets win for Britain followed in the doubles, Watson and Murray coming through 6-3 6-4.
Murray was content with his performance after losing to Kyrgios in his previous singles match.
"I obviously have things to practice on and try to improve, I am fairly pleased with how I played," Murray said.
"The serve was good, that is a good start to build from. I gave up maybe five or six break points total in the three matches, and some of them could have been avoided as well, so that was very good.
"The rest of my game there is a few things I can still work on, the movement can get a bit sharper and I can hit the ball a bit cleaner from the back of the court, but I think that will come."
