Berlin, Sep 16 (IANS): Australia regained the lead at the relegation match following Chris Guccione and Leyton Hewitt's 6-3, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 victory over Germany's Benjamin Becker and double specialist Philipp Petzschner in the doubles at Hamburg Rothenbaum.

After both sides had won their single matches, the teams knew how decisive Saturday's doubles would be, reports Xinhua.

Guccione and Hewitt started way better into the double match as they were able to establish a two set lead (6-3, 6-2) against Germany's Benjamin Becker and double specialist Philipp Petzschner.

The Germans fought back and were able to win the third set 6-2 to make it 2-1 on the scoreboards. Both teams staged an evenly balanced fourth set, thus, the tiebreak had to bring the decision.

The Australians broke in the first point to win the fourth set 7-6 (7-4) to put their side 2-1 up front overall.

Mayer encounters Tomic and Stebe faces Hewitt for the remaining single matches scheduled for Sunday.

"We cannot be satisfied as we didn't want to go with a 2-1 deficit into Sunday," German team manager Patrick Kuhnen said.

Bernard Tomic opened the scoring for Australia against Cedrik Marcel Stebe whereas Florian Mayer flabbergasted Hewitt in three sets to draw level for Germany.