MALMO (Sweden), April 4: World number one Lleyton Hewitt eased Australia into a 2-0 lead over Sweden in their Davis Cup quarterfinal on Friday, seeing off Thomas Enqvist 6-4 6-2 5-7 6-4.

Earlier in the day Mark Philippoussis gave the visitors a flying start by beating doubles specialist Jonas Bjorkman 6-4 6-3 6-3 in the opening singles match.

The opening results leave things looking gloomy for the Swedes ahead of the doubles on Saturday, where Enqvist and Bjorkman team up for their first ever Davis Cup doubles match against Wayne Arthurs and Todd Woodbridge.

Philippoussis played near flawless tennis to outclass Bjorkman, who struggled throughout most of the match to hold his service.

The hard-hitting Australian hit a total of 14 aces but also displayed a very solid overall game, producing spectacular winners and backhand passing shots.

“I just wanted to go out there and hit the ball like I’ve been hitting the ball all week, where I’ve been really solid,” Philippoussis said. “I made very few unforced errors and made him work.

“I didn’t force anything out there, except for the first match point, where I felt a little rush of adrenaline.”

He also won key points by occasionally shifting to slower strokes against Bjorkman, a player who likes to use his opponent’s pace to generate his own.

“It was not like I went in there and went for winners and every thing went in... It was consistent and I didn’t overplay, didn’t go for anything huge.”

Philippoussis broke Bjorkman in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead in the first set and then held serve to win it 6-4.

Bjorkman won only one point in the first set on the Australian’s serve.

The Swede was broken for 2-1 in the second set and then again for 6-3 after failing to win one of three break-back chances on the Australian’s serve at 3-2.

Bjorkman refused to give up but gave Philippoussis a break for 4-2 in the final set after missing an easy forehand volley.

Philippoussis went on to serve out, winning on his second match point with a forehand passing shot.

“He played out of his shoes today,” Bjorkman told reporters. “He did not make too many unforced errors and any time I tried to come in (to the net) it looked like he had plenty of time. I have never seen him play that good.

“I didn’t play bad, I just didn’t get a chance to play the way I wanted to play.

“He had great variation in his game throughout, with good depth in his shots... He played wisely, for once.”

“I didn’t want to get over excited, it’s very easy to get over excited when you’re playing well. That’s the only thing I was saying in my mind, ‘don’t overplay’,” said Philippoussis.

VALENCIA (Spain): Juan Carlos Ferrero and Carlos Moya scored crushing singles wins over Croatia’s top two players on Friday to take Spain to the brink of a Davis Cup quarter-final victory.

Ferrero put a nervous start behind him to set Spain on their way with a 6-4 6-2 7-6 success over teenager Mario Ancic on the red clay at the Valencia Tennis Club.

Moya, ranked a place behind Ferrero at number four in the world, then won a spectacular tussle with Ivan Ljubicic to make it 2-0 at the end of the first day.

Ljubicic served immensely well throughout the match but Moya held on to claim a 6-7 6-1 6-4 6-4 victory in two hours 57 minutes — Moya’s first victory in four meetings with the Croatian number one.

Ljubicic is due back on court on Saturday to partner Lovro Zovko in the doubles against Albert Costa and Alex Corretja — a match Croatia must win to keep the tie alive going into the reverse singles on Sunday.

BUENOS AIRES: David Nalbandian brushed aside Nikolay Davydenko in straight sets to give Argentina the lead in their Davis Cup quarter-final against defending champions Russia on Friday.

Nalbandian, beaten Wimbledon finalist last year, won 6-2 6-2 7-5 in two hours and 22 minutes despite suffering a hiccup after a rain interruption in the third set.

Backed by a fanatical 10,000 crowd, Nalbandian was 4-1 up when a shower halted play and he appeared to lose concentration when play resumed.

He was twice broken when serving for the match as Davydenko, who never really got to grips with the clay surface, fought back to 5-5 before recovering to wrap up the match.

Gaston Gaudio was due to take on former world number one Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the second singles rubber.—Reuters