Australia, led by world No 1 Lleyton Hewitt, swept by the United States at the World Team Cup on Tuesday, winning all three matches in Duesseldorf in Germany.Both Americans, James Blake and Todd Martin, lost their singles matches in straight sets.

　　Hewitt beat Blake 6-3, 6-3, and left-hander Wayne Arthurs edged Todd Martin 7-6 (4), 7-5. In the doubles, Blake teamed with Graydon Oliver, but the Australian pairing of Arthurs and Todd Reid claimed a 6-4, 6-2 win.

　　A succession of unforced errors led to Blake losing his serve in the opening game, and although he tied at 2-2 and drew Hewitt into some lengthy baseline rallies, he was never able to place the Australian under pressure.

　　Hewitt won the last four games of the first set, but Blake had an opportunity when a netted forehand gave him a break for 3-2 in the second. But his lead was short-lived as Hewitt broke back in the next game, and a forehand volley gave Hewitt another break and a 5-3 lead.

　　"I'm pretty disappointed that I could have played a lot better," Blake said.

　　"Even when I got up in the second set I still didn't feel like I was hitting the ball the way I'd like to for the clay court season. I was just kind of pushing and got into that rut, instead of going for my shots."

　　Martin held off nine break points and fired 15 aces against Arthurs, but still couldn't find a way to win. He held just one break point of his own, and a fall when down 6-5 in the second set allowed Arthurs to put away an easy volley for a 10th break point. Martin then netted a forehand to give Arthurs victory.

　　"As close as the match was, I thought Wayne outplayed me fairly significantly throughout the match," Martin said.

　　"He had tons of break points and he controlled his service games very well, which he always does."

　　Spain and the Czech Republic were tied at 1-1 after failing light forced their doubles to be postponed.

　　Alex Corretja put Spain ahead by overcoming Radek Stepanek 6-4, 6-4, and Carlos Moya had the opportunity to close things out when he held three match points against Jiri Novak at 6-5 in the second set. But some poor returns let Novak off the hook, and Novak then powered his way to a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory.

　　Earlier, Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu teamed to defeat Rainer Schuettler and Michael Kohlmann 1-6, 6-2, 6-0 and give Chile a 2-1 win over Germany in the match delayed by rain on Monday.

　　Defending champion Argentina completed a 3-0 win over Sweden, Lucas Arnold and David Nalbandian beating Jonas Bjorkman and Thomas Enqvist 6-7 (2), 7-6 (4), 6-2 in their doubles.

　　In Madrid, Cara Black of Zimbabwe upset third-seeded Conchita Martinez 6-2, 6-3 on Tuesday in the first round of the US,000 Spanish Open.

　　Black, ranked 79th in the world, easily beat the veteran Spaniard, who has been playing well and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Italian Open last week before losing to Serena Williams.

　　Martinez played sloppy tennis for much of the match and came to life only briefly in the second set, trailing 3-0.

　　In an earlier upset, Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic beat eighth-seeded Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. Koukalova overpowered the error-prone Spaniard, who said it was painful to crash out in the first round of a tournament in her hometown.

　　Sixth-seeded Magui Serna of Spain downed Patricia Wartusch of Austria 6-2, 6-2 in a match that lasted less than an hour.

　　Elsewhere, Conchita Martinez Granados beat fellow Spaniard Marta Marrero 6-7 (5), 7-6 (3), 6-4 in a grueling match that lasted more than three hours.