Hosts Australia upset top seeds Russia in the opening match of the Hopman Cup in Perth on Saturday, courtesy of singles wins from Alicia Molik and Mark Philippoussis.

Mark Philippoussis of Australia plays a shot during his men's singles match against Dmitry Tursunov of Russia in session one of the Hopman Cup in Perth, Western Australia, December 30, 2006.[Reuters]

In the other Group A tie of the eight-nation mixed team event, France defeated the United States with Jerome Haehnel and Tatiana Golovin winning their singles matches.

The Australian duo, both looking to return to higher rankings after injury and poor form, enjoyed emphatic wins with Molik beating world number six Nadia Petrova in three sets and Philippoussis seeing off Dmitry Tursunov in two.

Tursunov and Petrova restored some Russian pride with a 7-6 6-1 triumph in the dead doubles rubber to make the final match score 2-1.

Molik, who rose to a career-high world number eight in early 2005 before a debilitating ear infection saw her slip to a 2006 year-end ranking of 163, gave the hosts the perfect launchpad with a 6-2 2-6 6-2 win over Petrova.

The 25-year-old, who came through the playoffs last week to earn a wildcard to next month's Australian Open, surged to a 3-0 lead in the first set before the Russian levelled the breaks at 3-2.

Another break, courtesy of a line call referred to Hawkeye, helped Molik to seal the set 6-2. She then went 2-0 up in the second before Petrova reeled off six games in a row to level the match.

Molik broke in the sixth game of the decider to shatter the Russian's resistance and complete victory 6-2.

"In a sense I am restarting my career and I do feel like this is the start of something," Molik said.

A polished 6-4 7-6 victory by Philippoussis, ranked 114, over world number 22 Tursunov rendered the doubles contest dead.

The Australian broke in game three of the opening set before holding on to take the advantage against the Russian, who was playing his first competitive match since helping his country to lift the Davis Cup earlier this month.

Despite Tursunov having a set point at 5-6 in the second, former U.S. Open and Wimbledon finalist Philippoussis won 10 straight points to level the set and then win the tie-break.

BAD TRAVELLER

Later in the day, France's Golovin took nearly two hours to defeat Ashley Harkleroad of the United States 6-3 4-6 6-2.

Haehnel won a third-set tie-break 7-3 to beat the more experienced Mardy Fish 7-5 4-6 7-6 and give seventh-seeded France the win. The Frenchman later admitted he had needed to overcome a dislike of flying to make it to Australia to play for his country.

The United States, seeded fourth, were awarded a walkover for the dead doubles rubber.

India will make their debut in the competition on Sunday when they take on the Czech Republic. India's Sania Mirza, silver medallist at the Asian Games this month, will partner Rohan Bopanna against Lucie Safarova and Tomas Berdych.

The other teams in the $1-million competition are Croatia and Spain, who will be in action on Monday.