Hewitt, Australia Gold bow out of Hopman Cup

Former world number one Hewitt, who will retire after the Australian Open later this month, was unable to prevent the Australia Gold team from succumbing to defeat to Ukraine.

His team partner Jarmila Wolfe was beaten 6-3 6-3 by Elina Svitolina before Hewitt suffered a 4-6 6-3 6-4 loss to Alexandr Dolgopolov.

Wolfe and Hewitt were able to avoid a whitewash by winning in the mixed doubles against the Ukrainian duo, prevailing 3-6 7-5 10-5.

In the other contest in Group A, United States ended the tournament on a high by seeing off Czech Republic.

Despite Serena Williams pulling out on Wednesday because of a knee injury, Jack Sock and Victoria Duval came through in the deciding doubles rubber against Jiri Vesely and Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 10-7.

Earlier, Sock beat Vesely 4-6 6-2 7-6 (7-3) and Duval lost 4-6 6-1 6-4 to Pliskova.