PERTH, Australia. Dec 31: Powerserving Mark Pliillppoussls unleashed 37 aces as he scored successive singles and doubles victories Tuesday to lift Australia to a 2-1 win over fourth-seeded France in the Hopman Cup mixed teams tennis championship at the Burswood Dome, reports AP.

The win kept alive the Australians' hopes of advancing as they improved to a 1-1 position while France suffered its second straight defeat and cannot make the final of the roundrobin event.

Philippoussis slammed down 22 aces as he defeated Guy Forget 7-6 (7-1). 6-2 in the men's singles and then had another 15 as he combined with veteran Nicole Bradtke to win a tense mixed doubles 7-6 (9-7). 7-6 (7-5) against Forget and Mary Pierce.

France had earlier taken the lead when Pierce beat Bradtke 7-6 (8-6). 6-1 in the opening women's singles.

The Australian pair took almost two hours to win the doubles, squandering two match points when Bradtke served at 6-5 in the second sei.

It was Bradtke. wife of Philadelphia 76ers basketball player . Mark Bradtke. who clinched the viclory, putting away a forehand volley at the net in the second set tiebreaker.

'That felt good." Bradtke said. "I always lee! quite confident playing doubles because 1 am capable of serving and volleying. and I felt volleyed pretty well today."

Philippoussis was in commanding form in both his matches, winning seven straight points In the first set tiebreaker of his singles and then winning six of the last seven games.

The powerful 20-year-old backed up his big serve with some excellent returns that kept the pressure on Forget, who was again troubled by blisters on his left hand. The win followed his opening day singles triumph over Goran Ivanisevic.

"I feel really confident." Philippoussis said. Tm hitting

the ball well and playing nice, solid tennis. I'm working the ball around a lot better than I

was a year ago and am a lot more relaxed.'

Pierce recovered from a sluggish first set to defeat Bradtke in the women's singles.

The former Australian Open champion squandered Iwo set points al 5-3 in the first set and allowed Bradtke to force the tiebreaker. Bradtke led 5-1 and 6-4 In the tiebreaker, but squandered the two set points and Pierce escaped.

"You can't give the girls an inch, or they'll take a mile," Bradtke said.

Pierce, ranked 20th in the world, dominated the second set, using her pinpoint groundstrokes to good effect to win in 82 minutes.

Bradtke. a French Open semifinalist back In 1988, never has won a set in three meetings with Pierce.

Croatia. France. Australia and the United States are contesting Group A of the event and Switzerland. Germany. Romania and South Africa are in Group B.

Croatia and the United States, both winners of their opening matches, meet on Wednesday night with Switzerland and South Africa, also both victorious in their openers, contesting the day session.

The winning team from each Srbup will advance to Satur-ay's final.

Prize money for the event totals US 640,000 dollars. The winning pair will collect US dollars 176,000.

The Hopman Cup is one of a series of lead-up events to the Australian Open, to be played In Melbourne from Jan 13-26.