Australia's Casey Dellacqua and Matt Ebden lose Hopman Cup tie to Poland

As it was, the home nation lost 0-3, but if Matt Ebden could have held serve when he led 5-4 and one set to nil against Jerzy Jankowicz, the Aussies may have been able to kick start their campaign with a victory.

It didn't matter that Casey Dellacqua had already lost in straight sets to world number six Agnieszka Radwanska.

The Aussies are both solid doubles players and would potentially have gone into the match as favourite.

Ebden got to deuce. But a bit of pressure, together with a net cord, a double fault and an injured calf bought the Pole right back into the match.

Actually, he reeled off the next nine games against Ebden, who was clearly showing discomfort, to win 3-6 7-5 6-0.

And Ebden's calf injury was enough to keep him from playing the mixed doubles, which was played as one pro-set (first to eight games).

Ebden was replaced for the dead rubber by 22-year-old Queenslander Ben Mitchell, although the West Australian is able to return for Wednesday's tie against France if he can get himself fit.

For almost two sets though, Ebden made light of his lowly ranking of 231 in the world, outplaying his 43rd-ranked opponent.

Ebden played more like the guy who was ranked 61 in the world back in March 2014 before a wrist injury curtailed his season.

He took out the first set in just 31 minutes.

Jankowicz looked flat and had produced 10 unforced errors in the first five games of the match.

At that stage, the set was still on serve, with Ebden leading 3-2.

And that was before the Australian started making the most of the opportunities.

When the set finished, Janowicz' unforced error count had ballooned out to 16, compared to Ebden's five.

Both players had produced nine wins apiece.

The second set started to follow a similar script.

Ebden broke serve in the fifth game of the set to take a 3-2 lead and everything was looking rosy until he started his service game for the match.

He had treatment after he lost that game and the scores were levelled at 5-5. But things went downhill very quickly for the West Australian from there.

Earlier, Radwanska had little trouble getting past Dellacqua, winning 6-2 6-3 in just 75 minutes.

Radwanska settled into the first match of the year, racing away to a 5-1 lead.

It wasn't that Dellacqua, ranked 29, wasn't in those games, or points, she just couldn't finish off as well as her opponent.

Her 19 unforced errors in the opening set told a significant story.

There were glimpses of Dellacqua's fighting qualities though.

She broke Radwanska's serve to get back to 5-2 and then looked to gain some momentum when she got to 30-15 on her next serve.

But Radwanksa has made it into the top 10 in the world through consistent performances and regained control to win the first set in 33 minutes.

Dellacqua's service game is another area where she will gain some improvement as the tournament goes on. She finished the first set having won six of 13 points where she got her first serve in – and only five of 14 second serves.

The Australian's inconsistencies continued in the second set.

She raced to a 2-0 lead, but another 19 unforced errors from Dellacqua's racquet for the set again didn't help.

"It was always going to be a tough opponent, especially first match of the year, to you know, find my game," Dellacqua said.

"But yeah, obviously she is top 10 and they're the opportunities that I need week in and week out to continue to improve.

"You know, I had some good stuff tonight and then there were stuff where I set the point up and didn't execute the best.

"It obviously wasn't good enough to beat someone like Radwanska, but hopefully I can take some things from that match and continue to improve."

Poland won the mixed doubles 8-4, but was officially credited with a 6-0 6-0 victory.