Alex De Minaur helps give Australia Davis Cup lead against Sweden

Alex de Minaur and Aleksandar Vukic won their opening singles rubbers in Australia's Davis Cup first-round qualifying tie against Sweden in Stockholm.

De Minaur, in his first outing since reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals last week, had to subdue Mikael Ymer before running away to a 7-5, 6-1 victory on Saturday AEDT.

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Prevailing in the first rubber of the best-of-five tie, de Minaur's 16th Davis Cup singles win gave Lleyton Hewitt's injury-ravaged side the perfect lift-off, silencing the noisy full house in the Swedish capital's Royal Tennis Hall.

It ended up a straightforward win for the world number eight on the quick indoor hard court but he had his hands full early on with Ymer, who is a former top-50 player.

Ymer is returning to professional tennis after serving an 18-month ban for an anti-doping violation and was coming off an ITF tournament triumph last week in Luxembourg.

"It was a competitive match, a very tough match," de Minaur said in his on-court interview.

"Mikael played well. I knew he was going to be a very tough opponent, so I'm very happy I got the win for Australia and put a win on the board."

Later, Davis Cup debutant Vukic defeated Leo Borg 6-4, 6-4 in the second singles rubber.

"Leo's a very good player," Vukic said.

"He made it very tough, and it's always tough to play in front of the opponent's home crowd.

"Alex did a great job before me, and hopefully we'll just get some rest and recovery before the doubles guys try to do their thing."

AAP

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