A resurgent Wayne Arthurs overcame Austrian number one Jurgen Melzer 7-6, 6-2, 6-4 on Friday to give Australia a commanding 2-0 lead in their Davis Cup World Group first round tie.
Oozing confidence since capturing his first career title in Arizona last weekend, the 33-year-old Arthurs battled through a tight first set and then raced away from an error-prone Melzer to score an unexpectedly easy win in two hours.
In the opening singles rubber, world number two Lleyton Hewitt, playing in his first match since losing the Australian Open final to Marat Safin in January, outclassed Alexander Peya 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 to put the hosts ahead.
Australia can close out the tie in Saturday's doubles, when Arthurs will team with the nation's most successful doubles player Todd Woodbridge against Peya and Julian Knowle.
A quarter-final against either Argentina or the Czech Republic awaits the winners of the tie.
"It's a relief to be 2-0, a very handy position," Australia captain John Fitzgerald said.
Arthurs used his powerful serve to great effect against Melzer, which in turn put pressure on the Austrian and produced a string of mistakes in the second and third sets.
The lanky left-hander won a close first-set tie-breaker 7-5 and then grabbed the first service break of the match on a forehand error by the world number 34 in the third game of the second set.
The pair traded service breaks at the start of the third set before Arthurs broke again in the fifth game when he delicately pushed a backhand half-volley past a stranded Melzer.
Austrian captain Thomas Muster admitted his team had hoped Melzer would be able to beat 63rd-ranked Arthurs but said he was not disappointed despite being one match away from defeat.
"I sort of expected a win from Jurgen but we have to accept that Wayne played a great match," Muster said.
Arthurs described his win as second only to his victory over Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov on his Davis Cup debut in 1999.
The Australian is in a rich vein of form after beating Croatia's Mario Ancic in the Arizona final and Melzer in Memphis on February 16.
"My confidence is sky high right now," he said.
LITTLE TROUBLE
Hewitt had little trouble against the inexperienced Peya, playing in just his third Davis Cup singles match, and easily secured his 26th Davis Cup singles win from 31 matches.
"I just went out there and tried to get off to a good start, stamp my authority on the match," Hewitt said.
The Australian took advantage of world number 144 Peya's weak second serve and surrendered only two points as he raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set.
Showing no sign of the hip muscle injury that dogged his Australian Open, Hewitt broke serve twice in the first set, which he closed out with a scrambling backhand winner at full stretch.
The 2002 Wimbledon champion looked comfortable on the temporary grass courts installed at Sydney's International Tennis Centre and reinforced his authority when he won five straight games in the middle of the second set.
Hewitt dropped his own serve at start of the second and third sets but was never in any serious trouble against Peya and quickly got back on track on both occasions with his superior court coverage and dominant net game.
