The United States made light of the temporary absence of Serena Williams as they beat India 2-1 in their opening Group A match at the Hopman Cup on Saturday.
Meghann Shaughnessy, standing in for the world number seven, gave the US a perfect start to the warm-up event for next month's Australian Open by beating Sania Mirza 6-3 4-6 6-3.
Mardy Fish sealed the win with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Rohan Bopanna before the Indian pair took the doubles 6-4 6-4. Williams is due to arrive in Perth in time for her nation's second group match in the eight-nation mixed-team tournament against the Czech Republic on Monday. World number 52 Shaughnessy won the first four games against an erratic Mirza and looked on course for a quick win when she led by a set and 2-0.
However, Mirza hit back to level and then took command at 3-1 in the decider only to falter when it mattered, losing the last five games to hand Shaughnessy the win.
"I got the call a couple of days ago," said Shaughnessy, who left within minutes of the doubles to catch a flight to Australia's Gold Coast, where she is due to play in the WTA event starting on Sunday.
"I sort of feel like I've got a couple of matches under my belt already, just from that one match. It's great preparation." Fish then breezed past world number 267 Bopanna, easing to victory in one hour, 12 minutes to render the mixed doubles a dead rubber.
"I'm extremely pleased," Fish said in a courtside interview. "Rohan's a very dangerous player and you never know what to expect after the off-season but it was very good."
Later on Saturday, the Czech Republic team of Tomas Berdych and Lucie Safarova begin their campaign against hosts Australia, represented by Peter Luczak and Alicia Molik. Top seeds Serbia, represented by Novak Djokovic and Jelena Jankovic, begin their campaign in Group B on Sunday against Taiwan.
France and Argentina complete the Group B line-up, with the winners of each group going through to the final.