Australia's Bernard Tomic returns a shot from Italy's Andreas Seppi Source: Daniel Wilkins / News Limited
BERNARD Tomic breathed life into Australia's Hopman Cup hopes and his own summer campaign with a courageous comeback win over Italian Andreas Seppi at Perth Arena.
Down a set and appearing to be struggling physically, Tomic turned the match around to get home 4-6 6-3 6-2.
Tomic's win levelled Australia's tie with Italy at 1-1, setting up a live mixed doubles after Flavia Pennetta had earlier disposed of Sam Stosur 6-4 6-4.
It was a significant performance from Tomic, who had received renewed criticism over an inability to fight out matches after losing the second set to Milos Raonic on Saturday night in just 22 minutes.
Tomic, the highest-ranked Australian male at 51, has targeted a top-20 ranking in 2014 and will defend his title at the Sydney International next week.
The 21-year-old said he was completing an intense block of training while in Perth with an eye on the Australian Open.
"Yesterday I trained a lot. I trained about five or six hours and this morning I did two hours, so it was very difficult for me,'' he said.
"The main focus is playing the best I can in the Australian Open and in Sydney.
"This week's a training week for me. I'm playing very tired, but who cares. At the end of the day I've got to push myself.
"I know I was feeling a bit tired out there, but it's only going to make me stronger I guess for the big one in a few weeks.''
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Australia began the tournament with a 2-1 loss to Canada on Saturday night, with Tomic and Stosur losing their singles matches before winning the mixed doubles.
Stosur remains winless for the tournament in singles, with her straight sets loss to Pennetta coming after she went down to Canadian teenager Eugenie Bouchard on Saturday night.
Serving at 4-4 in the second set, Stosur double faulted three times in her service game before Pennetta prevailed after a long rally at her third break-point opportunity.
Pennetta, aged 31 and ranked 31 in the world, served out the match despite having difficulties with the sun.
Stosur, who has never beaten Pennetta, conceded she was becoming frustrated with her results in her home country but was confident she would be playing better by the time the Australian Open begins.
"It's really frustrating. I definitely want to play my best tennis here in Australia and so far I haven't been able to quite show that yet,'' she said.
"But hopefully with each match I can start building on something and a little bit better each day. Hopefully by the end of this week, by Hobart and in Melbourne hopefully I can be playing some of my best tennis.
"Every year I've managed to play well at some point. It's not like you start not so well in the first couple of matches and your whole year's shot.
"I think time on court is the most important thing at the moment. That's why this tournament is so great.''
Mark Philippoussis and Jelena Dokic in 1999 remain the only Australian team to win the unique mixed teams event.
Australia's final tie is against Poland on Thursday night.
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