Murray delights Britain

Andy Murray shrugged off sunburn to lead Britain to a second consecutive victory at the Hopman Cup yesterday, beating Germany 2-1 to move to the verge of a surprise place in the final of the mixed team event.

An inspired performance from Andrey Golubev also helped Kazakhstan topple Russia 2-1 in one of the biggest shocks the tournament has produced.

Murray may have misjudged the strength of the Perth sun but he timed everything else to perfection as Britain went top of Group B.

"My back is on fire," he told reporters after trouncing Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4 6-1.

"I practised yesterday with my shirt off and I got so, so burnt."

Britain will reach the final if they beat Russia in their last round-robin match tomorrow, though the Russians and Kazakhstan could also still qualify ahead of them.

Laura Robson, 15, pushed German Sabine Lisicki hard before going down 7-6 6-3 but world number four Murray then made light work of Kohlschreiber.

Murray and Robson followed up by winning the doubles 6-3 6-2.

Scot Murray has vowed to be more aggressive in 2010 and he was true to his word as he stormed 4-1 clear thanks to some crisp hitting.

The only blip came when he dropped his serve and Kohlsch-reiber levelled at 4-4 but he broke again to win the set and then roared through the second in 17 minutes.