PERTH (Australia), Jan 5: Former world number one Lleyton Hewitt made a winning return from hip surgery on Monday but couldn’t prevent Australia’s narrow 2-1 defeat to Germany in the Hopman Cup mixed teams event.

Hewitt was impressive in his 6-7 (6-8), 6-3, 6-2 defeat of Nicolas Kiefer but the German took his revenge with a thrilling match tie-break win in the decisive mixed doubles encounter 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 10-5.

Hewitt ended 2008 ranked 68th, the first time he had been outside the top 50 since 1998.

The former US Open and Wimbledon champion appeared to be moving freely in his comeback match as he recovered from a set down against Kiefer.

But the day’s star turned out to be German teenager Sabine Lisicki, who came from a set down to beat hometown favourite Casey Dellacqua in the women’s singles before helping Kiefer clinch the doubles.

Lisicki reeled off the last three games of the singles match as Dellacqua dramatically imploded on her Hopman Cup debut, winning just one of the last 13 points after serving for the match. Lisicki won the match 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

Despite the loss, Hewitt and Dellacqua looked set to clinch the Group ‘A’ tie when they won the first set of the mixed doubles. But the German pair won the second set and dominated the match tie-break.

Meanwhile, Cagey veteran Dominik Hrbaty conjured an upset 3-0 win for the Slovak Republic over defending champions the United States in the mixed teams Hopman Cup.

Hrbaty belied his lowly ranking to stun American James Blake, snatching an enthralling singles encounter in three sets to secure the Group ‘A’ tie for the Slovaks against the top seeds.

Result: