Germany’s Sabine Lisicki hits a return to Meghann Shaughnessy of the US during their Hopman Cup women’s singles match at the Burswood Dome in Perth, yesterday.

PERTH: Germany shocked the United States at the Hopman Cup yesterday to end the hopes of the top seeds and holders and move within one tie of the mixed teams tournament final.

Teenager Sabine Lisicki and Nicolas Kiefer continued their impressive run in Group A with a narrow 2-1 win over Meghann Shaughnessy and James Blake, edging the mixed doubles 6-3, 3-6, 10-7. The German pair, who earlier beat Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt and Casey Dellacqua, face the Slovak Republic today for a place in the final.

Blake and Shaughnessy now have no chance of defending the title won by Mardy Fish and Serena Williams last year.

As has been the case so often this week, Germany was forced to wait until the mixed doubles to secure the crucial win, with Sabine Lisicki and Nicolas Kiefer edging past Meghann Shaughnessy and James Blake in a match tie-break.

Both Germany and the Slovak Republic have won the Hopman Cup twice and Kiefer said he was excited by the prospect of playing Dominika Cibulkova and Dominik Hrbaty for a berth in Friday’s final. “I love playing for my country,” he said. “I hope that is a great match tomorrow.”

In the women’s singles, Shaughnessy, on the comeback trail after a serious knee injury and still looking a little restricted in her movement, showed greatly improved form to take the first set, but couldn’t maintain her form and was beaten in three sets by the promising Lisicki, 4-6, 6-0, 6-4. The 56th-ranked Lisicki, 19, said she was pleased with the way she rallied after the first set to give her side a 1-0 lead. “I played really well in the second set,” she said. “First set was not bad actually, but you know at important points she made those. “The third set I was going up and down a little bit again, but I won it, so that’s what counts.”

Lisicki said she was looking forward to taking on fellow teenager Cibulkova, ranked 19th, who has looked impressive in two singles wins this week.

Blake, who was seeking a third title here, then squared the tie with a hard-earned win over the plucky Kiefer in the men’s singles, 7-6 (7/3), 6-7 (7/9), 6-4.

The American held two match points in the second set, but Kiefer managed to save both and then won the tie-break to force a decider. Blake broke in the first game of the third set and was able to protect the lead on his own serve, which produced 17 aces, to level the tie.

“He played great, he just put a lot of pressure on me and I was able to serve really well,” Blake said. “I worked on that a lot in the off-season and to go through a whole match against Kiefer and not get broken is something I am really proud of.”

The French pairing of Gilles Simon and Alize Cornet won’t be lacking in motivation when they take on Russia in a crucial Hopman Cup tie today.

Not only do the French need to win the tie to have any chance of reaching Friday’s final, but Simon is also savouring the chance to face one of his tennis idols in Marat Safin, while Cornet is looking forward to testing her top 10 aspirations against Safin’s sister, Dinara Safina.

Simon, who at 24 is only four years younger than the charismatic Safin is and ranked 23 places above the dual Grand Slam champion, said it would be a huge honour to play one of the game’s greats in what appears certain to be the final year of his career.

Simon still regrets never having had the chance to play his childhood hero, American Andre Agassi. “I have never played against him,” he said of Safin.

“I want to because he thought it was his last year maybe, so I really want to play against him because he is ... Marat.

“I was sad because I didn’t play Agassi before he stopped and I had the chance twice or three times to play against him.

“I am very happy to play against him (Marat) now.”

Simon, who climbed to a career-high ranking of six this week and in doing so became France’s highest-ranked man, was extremely disappointing on the same day in losing to Italy’s Simone Bolelli in straight sets.

He later put the performance down to tiredness due to a heavy practice schedule, but knows he will need to be in much better form against the unpredictable Safin. The Russian arrived in Perth just 15 hours before his opening singles match against Bolelli, and took to the court bearing the visible scars of a fist fight in Moscow last week, but yet played superb tennis to beat the Italian in straight sets.

“He is a very good player and it won’t be an easy match,” Simon said. “He has a huge serve, a very good backhand and he can play very, very good tennis.

“I just have to fight, and I have to rest to be ready for this match.” Like Simon, the 18-year-old Cornet also reached a career-high ranking this week, of 15.

The teenager has impressed with successive singles wins here, including a straight sets win over the higher-ranked Flavia Pennetta on Tuesday.

However, the powerful Safina, who is in the best physical shape of her career and aiming for the No.1 ranking, will be a huge test of her top 10 aspirations.