Sam Stosur received a timely confidence boost with a straight-sets demolition of Melanie Oudin to give Australia the early advantage over the USA in their Hopman Cup tie in Perth.
World No.13 Stosur, who suffered a shock three-set loss to Romania's Sorana Cirstea on the opening day of the $1 million mixed teams' tournament, powered past world No.48 Oudin 6-2 6-4 in 67 minutes.
Lleyton Hewitt can clinch the tie with victory over world No.34 John Isner in the men's singles rubber. Australia must win the tie in order to keep their title hopes alive following their upset 2-1 loss to Romania on Saturday.
"It's a lot better walking off the court a winner than a loser and I thought I played pretty well today, so I'm happy," Stosur said.
"I thought I didn't play too badly the other day, I just didn't finish it off and today I definitely wanted to make sure that if I got that lead that I was able to close it out.
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"I thought I played pretty well from the first point until the last point.
"I'm feeling really good now." Stosur secured the first set in just 26 minutes but faced a sterner test in the second, saving three break points before securing a break of her own to open a 4-2 lead.
Oudin held serve to keep the contest alive but Stosur held her never to serve out the match and secure her first win of 2010. Stosur converted three of seven break-point opportunities and fired down 14 aces, with her serve continually troubling Oudin.
"I have been working on it the last few months and I think I'm starting to see the improvement," Stosur said of her serve.
"I tried to mix up where I was going.
"I thought I hit the corners pretty well and I also tried to serve into her body a bit more and keep her guessing, and I think it worked really well."
