Dan Evans and Jamie Murray won their deciding doubles tie to seal a 2-1 win for Great Britain in their ATP Cup opener against Germany.
Evans and Murray beat Alexander Zverev and Kevin Krawietz 6-3 6-4.
Earlier, Evans had breezed past Jan-Lennard Struff 6-1 6-2 in his singles encounter before world number three Zverev levelled with a 7-6 (7-2) 6-1 win over Cameron Norrie.
Great Britain face their next group C opponents Canada on Tuesday.
Speaking after his singles success, British number two Evans said: “It’s a good way to start 2022.
“I’ve been practising well, but I didn’t expect to play the match this well.”
This is the third edition of the ATP Cup, which features 16 countries competing in four groups at two venues in Sydney – the Ken Rosewall Arena and Qudos Bank Arena.
Earlier on day two, Russia’s world number two Daniil Medvedev suffered a shock defeat by France’s Ugo Humbert.
After Medvedev’s team-mate Roman Safiullin had beaten Arthur Rinderknech in three sets in the opening singles rubber, world number 35 Humbert won 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 7-6 (7-2).
But Medvedev and Safiullin then clinched the deciding doubles tie 6-4 6-4 to ensure a 2-1 Russia victory.
In the other tie in Britain’s group, the United States beat Canada 3-0.
