Philippoussis injury hands France victory

PERTH (Reuters) - Australia's Mark Philippoussis retired with a knee injury against Jerome Haehnel to hand France an unassailable 2-0 lead in their Group A encounter on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old, who has had a history of knee injuries in his career, pulled up while chasing a wide ball to his backhand in the fourth game and received extensive courtside treatment.

He was clearly in pain and his movements severely restricted as he lost the fifth game on his serve to love and left a packed house at the Burswood Dome disappointed when he called it quits at 4-1 down.

Philippoussis had been hoping for a solid performance this week to earn a wildcard for the Australian Open starting on Jan 15, but he seems certain now to miss the year's opening grand slam in his home town of Melbourne.

Earlier, Tatiana Golovin had given France a 1-0 lead after a measured 7-5 6-2 victory over Alicia Molik.

The world number 22 recovered from 3-1 down in the opener to take the first set in 54 minutes before breaks in the first and seventh of the second set helped her wrap up the match in an hour and 22 minutes.

Both teams went into the match with winning records in Group A, France having won their bow against the United States while hosts Australia stunned top seeds Russia in the tournament opener on Saturday.

The Russians kept alive their chances of a maiden triumph in the event by beating the U.S. 2-1 in Tuesday's first Group A contest.

Dmitry Tursunov and Nadia Petrova combined to beat Mardy Fish and Ashley Harkleroad 6-3 7-5 in the mixed doubles to claim their first win of the mixed team competition.

Petrova swept past Harkleroad 6-3 6-0 in the opening singles before Fish kept the tie alive with an impressive 6-1 6-4 triumph over world number 22 Tursunov.

The Americans, who can no longer make Friday's final, were kept in the tie with a fine performance from Fish in the men's singles rubber.

The world number 47 served superbly to down Tursunov in just 58 minutes. Fish fired 13 aces, the last one clinching the final game and match after he had trailed 0-40.

"I played really well today and I am really excited about that," said Fish, whose ace tally came without a double fault.

"I served great today. For me when I play my best tennis it all starts with my serve."

World number six Petrova used her superior hitting from the back of the court to ease past world number 86 Harkleroad in 67 minutes.