Aussies wrap up victory

Great Britain put up a brief show of resistance before predictably slumping to a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Australia in the Davis Cup in Sydney.

Lleyton Hewitt and Todd Woodbridge beat Arvind Parmar and Miles Maclagan 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-2 in the doubles rubber to wrap up victory in the World Group first round tie with a day to spare.

It means the Australians will play either Sweden away or Brazil at home in the quarter-finals, while Britain face yet another relegation play-off in September to stay in the elite 16-nation world group.

Captain Roger Taylor will be praying his two top players, Tim Henman and Greg Rusedski, will be fit for that tie or relegation to the Euro/Africa Zone 1 is on the cards.

Leading 2-0 after singles victories for Mark Philippoussis and Hewitt, the home side took just 22 minutes to cruise through the first set of the doubles.

Parmar and Maclagan won just eight points in the first five games as they were comprehensively outplayed at the Olympic Arena.

World number one Hewitt set the tone in the opening service game, Britain's only point coming courtesy of a double fault from the Wimbledon champion.

In contrast, British number three Parmar was immediately broken in the next game, the only point this time coming from the sole first serve he managed to get in.

Woodbridge was taken to deuce before holding his serve and Maclagan was then broken as the Australians romped to a 5-0 lead.

Parmar, who had lost all his three previous Davis Cup matches, did hold serve to love to get on the scoreboard but Woodbridge wrapped up the set in the next game.

Faced with such a one-sided contest to watch, the crowd were intent on making their own amusement.

One Australian supporter called on the visitors to "bring on Michael Vaughan," the only England cricketer to impress during the recent Ashes series, and the biggest round of applause came when fans dressed as the Queen and Australian outlaw Ned Kelly arrived in the arena.

On court, the British pair did at least hold serve twice in the second set before Maclagan was broken to love in the fifth game, and the visitors also saved three set points in the ninth game before Woodbridge put away a backhand volley to seal the set 6-3.

And just when it looked as though Britain would fail to win a set in the entire tie, they surprisingly won the third set after the pairs exchanged breaks of serve in the early stages to make the score 2-2.

Hewitt had lost just two points on his serve up to that point, but lost it in the seventh game of the set, serving a double fault on break point to hand the visitors the advantage again.

It fell to Maclagan to serve out for the set and he saved two break points before doing so to give the British team their first set of the match 6-4.

That proved only to be delaying the inevitable, however, as Hewitt regained his focus to help the Australians take the fourth set 6-2.

Parmar's serve was broken in the sixth game and, after Woodbridge had to save four break points on his serve in the next game, Maclagan's serve was broken for the home side to complete a 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-2 victory in a minute over two hours.