Germany (AFP) – Lleyton Hewitt of Australia needed barely an hour to prove his hip injury is behind him as he defeated John Isner of the United States here at the World Team Cup.

The former Wimbledon and US Open champion saw off Isner 6-2, 6-4 in just 66 minutes and was rarely troubled by the American in the red group clash and looks in good form for Roland Garros at the end of this month.

The 29-year-old has not played since undergoing surgery in January to fix a hip problem a week after losing in the fourth round of the Australian Open to Roger Federer.

After America's Sam Querry had earlier beaten Australia's Peter Luczak 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 in the other tie to level the scores, the match will now be decided by the doubles on Monday.

In the group's other match, Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic put his country 1-0 up with a win 6-2, 6-2 win over Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver.

In the Blue Group, Germany's Andreas Beck needed nearly three hours to beat France's Paul-Henri Mathieu and level the score at 1-1 with Monday's doubles also set to decide the tie.

On his Team World Cup debut, left-hander Beck dug deep in front of an enthusiastic crowd to claim a 7-6 (7/1), 6-7 (4/7), 6-4 against the Frenchman who blasted down 15 aces in a titanic struggle.

Earlier Jeremy Chardy had put France 1-0 up with a comfortable 6-2, 6-4 win over Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber.

In the group's other match, Argentina's Horacio Zeballos put his country 1-0 up with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Filip Krajinovic of Serbia.