Australia's Lleyton Hewitt fires a ball back to Austria's Alexander Peya during the first round of the Davis Cup in Sydney, Friday. (AFP Photo)

SYDNEY, Australia, March 4--World No.2 Lleyton Hewitt overpowered 144th-ranked Austrian Alexander Peya in straight sets Friday to launch Australia’s Davis Cup campaign in emphatic style at Sydney’s Olympic Park, AFP reported.
Playing on a drop-in grass court installed for the first-round tie, Hewitt brushed aside Peya 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in 100 minutes.
The win gave Australia a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five tie and extended Hewitt’s record as his country’s most successful Davis Cup player.
Hewitt said he always felt in control of the match and put pressure on his lesser-ranked opponent from the start.
“I felt like I put pressure on and stamped my authority right from the start on his second serve, so from then on he was going for it, he was trying to serve while he was mixing it up so at least I got into his head early on in the match,“ he said.
Hewitt said the grass court provided a few &#8220dodgy“ bounces but he was confident it would hold up over the three-day fixture.
Australia’s Wayne Arthurs will meet Austrian No.1 Jurgen Melzer in Friday’s second singles rubber after an out-of-form Mark Philippoussis was omitted from the squad.
The winner of the tie will host a quarter final in July against either Argentina or the Czech Republic.
Australia, number three in the Davis Cup rankings, has won the trophy 28 times, most recently in 2003 against Spain in Melbourne on grass.
Austria, ranked number 13, is yet to lift the trophy with its best performance being a semi-final appearance in 1990.
Austria defeated Australia 5-0 at their last Davis Cup meeting in Vienna in 1989 in which they played on a clay court laid over carpet.

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands,
March 4--PSV Eindhoven crushed second division Top Oss 6-1 and Feyenoord enjoyed a comfortable 4-0 win over NAC Breda in the Dutch Cup quarterfinals on Thursday, Reuters reported.
PSV will play Feyenoord in next month’s semi-finals, with Ajax Amsterdam, 2-0 winners over ADO Den Haag on Wednesday, meeting Willem II Tilburg in the other last-four clash.
PSV ended the Cup dreams of the only second division side left in the competition when they took a 2-0 lead inside the first 11 minutes thanks to goals by Michael Lamey and Robert from the penalty spot.
Robert again and DaMarcus Beasley struck before halftime and Robert completed his hat-trick on his debut for the club within the hour.
Leon van Dalen gave the visitors their consolation goal after 62 minutes but Mark van Bommel claimed PSV’s sixth.
NAC Breda traveled to Feyenoord with a long injury list, forcing them to adopt defensive tactics, and they went a goal down when Salomon Kalou struck a minute before the interval.
Dutch international Dirk Kuijt converted a penalty four minutes after halftime and, following another Kalou strike, Kuijt completed the rout with his second goal three minutes from time.
Feyenoord play PSV on April 20, and Tilburg face Ajax the following day.

DUBAI, UAE, March 4--World number one Lindsay Davenport and fellow American Serena Williams advanced to the semifinals of the one-million-dollar WTA Dubai Open on Thursday as Switzerland’s Patty Schndyer saved a match point on her way to defeating French Open champion Anastasia Myskina, AFP reported.
Top seed Davenport eased past Spanish veteran Conchita Martinez 6-1, 6-4, to set up a meeting with Schnyder, who earlier ousted third seed Myskina 6-7 (0/7), 7-6 (7/2), 6-4.
Williams, the second seed, ended the run of Slovak Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 6-3, and next meets Jelena Jankovic, the unseeded Serbian who abruptly ended the run of 18-year-old Indian Sania Mirza, 6-2, 6-2.
Australian Open champion Williams was focused on the task in hand against Hantuchova after dropping a set to Elena Bovina the night before.
“I didn’t want to get off to a slow start against Daniela because she’s got back to form,“ said world number four Williams.
“I definitely have been practising harder, and though I’m not number one it’s going to come soon. But it’s not my priority--that’s to win Grand Slam titles. A lot of people assume I’m number one anyway,“ the seven-time Grand Slam winner added.
Davenport, meanwhile, timed the ball better and recovered from a break of serve down in the second set to win 6-1, 6-4 against Martinez, the 32-year-old former Wimbledon champion.
The American looked much more comfortable in a lighter breeze than she had been the previous night against Zheng Jie of China, when she launched a ball out of the stadium and received a rare code violation warning.
Earlier Myskina threw away a match point before becoming the second Grand Slam titleholder from Russia to go out of the Dubai Open within two days after US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Myskina was one set and 6-5 up and also advantage point up against Schnyder, the world number 14 from Switzerland, before falling in three sets to a talented but unpredictable opponent.

Spain's Pedro de la Rosa powers his McLaren through a corner during the second practice session of the 2005 Australian Formula One Grand Prix, in Melbourne, Friday. (AFP Photo)

MELBOURNE, Australia, March 4--McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa put McLaren out in front on Friday after the first practice sessions for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, Reuters reported.
The Spaniard set the fastest time of the day in the second session after Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi led the way for newcomers Red Bull in the first.
De la Rosa, who will not race on Sunday, lapped in one minute 25.376 seconds with Finnish team mate Kimi Raikkonen second quickest in 1:25.676 to continue McLaren’s strong form in pre-season testing.
Liuzzi, last year’s Formula 3000 champion who could replace Austrian Christian Klien as a race driver later in the year, did his reputation no harm as teams limbered up for the season-opening race.
He was the only driver in the first session to lap below one minute 26 seconds.
Ferrari’s seven times world champion Michael Schumacher did not complete a timed lap in the morning but finished the afternoon fourth fastest with 15 circuits under his belt.
Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, in a McLaren, was the fastest non-test driver in the morning.
Minardi did not take part in either session and resorted to legal action after their car was ruled out for not conforming to the new regulations.
Canadian former world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who took pole position in the first race at Albert Park 10 years ago, was first out on track in his Sauber.
Meanwhile Michael Schumacher made an inauspicious start to the defense of his world championship at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix on Friday.
The German was forced to retire from the season’s first official practice session because of an electrical fault and could only manage the fourth fastest time in the second session.
His best effort of one minute 26.081 seconds was almost two seconds outside the lap record he set at Albert Park last year, and seven-tenths of a second behind McLaren test driver Pedro de la Rosa.
Although Friday’s practice session does not count towards qualifying and this year’s times were generally slower because of new regulations, Schumacher’s performance may be the first sign that Ferrari will not have everything their way this year.
The Italian manufacturer won 15 of the 18 races last year with Schumacher taking the checkered flag a record 13 times on the way to an unprecedented seventh world title.

LONDON, March 4--England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson has on his battle to secure a four-week gap before next year’s World Cup finals after it was announced Thursday the FA Cup final will be held on Saturday, May 13, 2006 in the first match at the new Wembley Stadium, AFP Photo.
The FA’s decision to bring forward the date of the final by a week, and the knock-on effect of the Premier League ending a week earlier than normal, came after speculation that the only way England’s Swedish boss could get the gap required under FIFA rules was to go against tradition and play the Cup final in midweek rather than on a Saturday.
However, compromises elsewhere have been made with FA Cup replays in the fifth and sixth rounds scrapped for clubs still involved in European competitions.
Teams in the UEFA Cup will not be required to play replays in the fifth round or quarterfinals.
Those in the Champions League will not have quarterfinal replays and any ties affected will go to extra time and penalties if necessary.
FIFA had allowed the FA special dispensation to play next season’s final on May 20 but Eriksson maintained England needed the full four weeks’ preparation time which their major rivals will enjoy before the finals in Germany. The World Cup finals start on June 9 and England currently lead Group Six in qualifying.
The FA said in a statement that the replay exemptions would only affect next season.
The statement said: “This follows continued positive talks involving the FA, Premier League and Football League to find an appropriate solution to protecting the tradition and heritage of the FA Cup, while allowing for FIFA’s four-week window between the end of all major domestic seasons and the start of the World Cup.
“The FA believes it is crucial to allow the national team to be given equal preparation time to every other team competing in Germany next summer, subject to qualification.
“To allow for a full four-week break, the domestic season has to conclude by May 13.“

KVITFJELL, Norway, March 4--Bode Miller will have to forget 2004 when he scrambles to widen his lead for the overall Alpine ski World Cup at the weekend, Reuters said.
The American, who leads Austrian Benjamin Raich before a downhill on Saturday and a super-G on Sunday, lost the overall World Cup lead on the same Kvitfjell piste a year ago after finishing a dismal 26th and 22nd in the same two events.
Austrian Hermann Maier took over at the top and went on to win his fourth overall title, dashing Miller’s hopes of becoming the first American to win the crown since Phil Mahre in 1983.
This year, with six races left of the season, Miller is buoyed up from winning gold in both the downhill and the super-G in the world championships last month.
He aims to use a daredevil style to pick up points at Kvitfjell, site of races at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics, and pull away from slalom specialist Raich.
“The advantage for the overall Cup is still with me because we have two downhills and super-Gs and my results have been consistently better,“ Miller said.
&#8220But I don&#8217t think it&#8217s a good idea for me to be conservative in Lillehammer. Raich can pull off top-10 places in these events.<br> &#8220It&#8217s worth the risk for me to try to pull some points from him, as opposed to getting fifth place and he gets eighth,&#8220 Miller said.<br> The 27-year-old Miller leads the overall standings on 1,253 points, just 31 ahead of Raich who chopped the American&#8217s lead from 191 points in races last weekend in Kranjska Gora after the mercurial Miller failed to finish.<br> </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0> <tr> <td width=20 align=right valign=middle> <a href="sports.htm#top"> <img src="../../../logo/UpArr.gif" border=0 align=left width=10 height=10 vspace=0 hspace=0 alt=""> </a> </td> <td align=center width=530> <hr width="80%"> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align=left> <a name="48624"></a> <div class=surtitle3> </div> <div class=title3> Heat Scorch Nets<br> </div> <div class=subtitle3> </div> <div class=detail3> <table class=RightImage border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width=340> <tr> <td align=Right> <img src="017592.jpg" border=1 width=340 height=598 alt="017592.jpg"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <div class=caption3> New Jersey Nets guard Jason Kidd (5) has his shot blocked by Miami Heat guard Shandon Anderson while driving to the basket in the fourth quarter of their NBA game in East Rutherford, New Jersey, Thursday. (Reuters Photo) <br> </div> </td> </tr> </table> TORONTO, March 4--Dwyane Wade had 27 points, eight assists and six rebounds as the Miami Heat beat the New Jersey Nets 106-90 in East Rutherford on Thursday, Reuters reported.<br> Shaquille O&#8217Neal returned to the Heat line-up after missing three games with a knee injury as Miami dominated the second half to end New Jersey&#8217s three-game winning streak.<br> O&#8217Neal had 20 points and 13 rebounds and only had to play 33 minutes as Miami out-scored New Jersey 62-42 after the interval.<br> The giant center showed no ill-effects from his knee injury and even went 8-for-11 from the line, where he is a notoriously poor shooter.<br> Eddie Jones added 15 points for the Heat, while Udonis Haslem chipped in with 13 points as Miami improved to an Eastern Conference leading 43-16.<br> Alonzo Mourning also played for Miami, a team he left as a free agent two seasons ago for New Jersey before re-signing with the Heat earlier this week.<br> He played the final 2:19 and grabbed two rebounds.<br> Vince Carter scored 27 points to lead the Nets, but was just 1-for-11 in the second half. Ron Mercer added 12 points for the losers.<br> In other games, Carmelo Anthony scored 28 points as the Nuggets beat the Indiana Pacers 96-87 in Denver.<br> In Phoenix, Amare Stoudemire had 26 points and 10 rebounds as the Phoenix Suns edged the Detroit Pistons 100-97.<br> </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0> <tr> <td width=20 align=right valign=middle> <a href="sports.htm#top"> <img src="../../../logo/UpArr.gif" border=0 align=left width=10 height=10 vspace=0 hspace=0 alt=""> </a> </td> <td align=center width=530> <hr width="80%"> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align=left> <a name="48627"></a> <div class=surtitle3> </div> <div class=title3> Mickelson Ahead at Doral Open<br> </div> <div class=subtitle3> </div> <div class=detail3> TORONTO, March 4--A red-hot Phil Mickelson fired an eight-under-par 64 to grab a share of the first-round lead at the Doral Open as Tiger Woods lurked one shot back on Thursday, Reuters reported.<br> Mickelson, who arrived in Miami after back-to-back wins in Phoenix and Pebble Beach, was quickly back in form with four late birdies to join Spain&#8217s Jose Maria Olazabal, Briton Brian Davis and American Marco Dawson atop the leaderboard.<br> Doral&#8217s Blue course, better known as the Blue Monster, did not prove very scary in benign conditions as Olazabal, Davis and Dawson carded bogey-free rounds.<br> Despite hitting only five fairways, Woods also produced an unblemished round to sit one shot back thanks to a hot putter.<br> Mickelson experienced an inconsistent start with two birdies and a bogey over his first six holes.<br> The US Masters champion suddenly caught fire on the seventh, however, scorching the final 12 holes with eight birdies.<br> &#8220It&#8217s nice to play well, especially when the field is so strong,&#8220 Mickelson told reporters. &#8220I know that the field is so strong and you&#8217ve got guys like Tiger and Vijay (Singh) and Retief (Goosen) and Mike Weir and David Toms, guys who are making a lot of birdies and have the ability to shoot 62 or 63.<br> &#8220When I&#8217m out there I find myself pushing to go lower than four or five under because I know it just isn&#8217t going to cut it with those guys in the field.&#8220<br> While Mickelson&#8217s name at the top of the leaderboard has become a common sight, the three men alongside him left some in the galleries searching through programs and newspapers for information.<br> The 1999 US Masters champion, Olazabal has failed to win on the PGA or European Tours for over three years and needed a sponsor&#8217s invitation to get into the $5.5 million event.<br> Davis, who posted his top PGA result with a tie for third at the rain-hit Nissan Open two weeks ago, and Dawson, playing in his first Tour event in 10 months after missing most of last season with a back injury, have yet to make make their names.<br> </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0> <tr> <td width=20 align=right valign=middle> <a href="sports.htm#top"> <img src="../../../logo/UpArr.gif" border=0 align=left width=10 height=10 vspace=0 hspace=0 alt=""> </a> </td> <td align=center width=530> <hr width="80%"> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <!-- Begin Bottom TOC --> <table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 width="100%"> <tr> <td> <hr width="100%"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align=center> <div class=htoc> | <a class=htoc href="../../../1383/2228/html/index.htm">Front Page</a> | <a class=htoc href="../../../1383/2228/html/national.htm">National</a> | <a class=htoc href="../../../1383/2228/html/economy.htm">Domestic Economy</a> | <a class=htoc href="../../../1383/2228/html/science.htm">Science</a> | <a class=htoc href="../../../1383/2228/html/panorama.htm">Panorama</a> | <a class=htoc href="../../../1383/2228/html/focus.htm">Economic Focus</a> | <a class=htoc href="../../../1383/2228/html/dotcoms.htm">Dot Coms</a> | <br> | <a class=htoc 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