Australia have claimed their opening tie of the Hopman Cup against France in Perth after a come-from-behind victory from Matt Ebden followed Ashleigh Barty's triumph in the home team's first singles match.
Playing in front of his home crowd at RAC Arena, Ebden shrugged off losing the opening set in just 30 minutes to beat Lucas Pouille 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.
Encouraging: Ash Barty showed solid form in her opening victory against Alize Cornet.Credit:AAP
Ebden, ranked No.46 in the world, scrapped to stay on serve in the second set and then jumped to a 5-0 lead in the tie-break.
While Pouille managed to recover to trail 5-6, he was unable to reel in Ebden's lead.
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Ebden carried his momentum into the third set and outplayed the Frenchmen, who is 32nd in the world rankings, but was as high as No.10 during 2018 before being hit by injury.
The West Australian says he took a while to get into his groove.
"There wasn't much rhythm until the second set, late. Lucas was playing fast; a lot of power in his serve," Ebden said.
"I was trying to do the same; be a little more aggressive, a little bit forward to the net and that worked out in the second and the third (sets) luckily.
Earlier, Barty's 7-5, 6-3 win over Alize Cornet got the hosts off to a perfect start.
The world No.15 survived two break points in an early service game before breaking Cornet's serve to take a 4-1 lead.
She broke a second time to claim the opening set in 50 minutes.
Cornet, who won the mixed-teams tournament with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in 2014, was under pressure throughout the second set from the 22-year-old Australian.
Barty said after the win that the tough hit out was just what she needed.
"It's always an extremely tough match, which is a little bit perfect in a sense. I knew I had to be ready; I had to hit one million balls," she said.
Matthew Ebden was able to rally and secure the tie for the home side.Credit:AAP
"There is a little bit of polish coming and with a couple of matches that will come.
"But I'm very happy."
The French pairing claimed the doubles to give the Australians a 2-1 win, with their next clash against Spain on Wednesday, while France take on Germany.
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