The brother-and-sister duo of Andrei Medvedev and Natalia Medvedeva teamed for a mixed-doubles victory Monday that helped fifth-seeded Ukraine to a 2-1 win over Sweden in the first round of the Hopman Cup tennis championship. Medvedev and Medvedeva defeated Mats Wilander and Asa Carlsson 6-2, 6-2 to clinch the match in Perth, Australia. Earlier, Wilander beat Medvedev 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, and Medvedeva needed 2 hours, 33 minutes, to down Carlsson 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 7-5. "The mixed is our family favorite event, and that's why we do so well," Medvedeva said. Wilander appeared to be a loser when he trailed 2-6 and was down a break against Medvedev in the singles before winning six straight games and changing the pattern of the match. The result was a surprise, because Medvedev is ranked 15th in the world and former world No. 1 Wilander is 127th. As soon as Wilander began to increase the pressure, Medvedev began making a stream of errors. "He relaxed and thought it was over and I relaxed and thought it was over," Wilander said. "That worked in my favor." Despite being troubled by stomach cramps in the final two sets, Medvedeva won five games in a row from 4-5 down in the second against Carlsson. In another first-round match, sixth-seeded France downed the Netherlands 2-1. Jean-Philippe Fleurian and Julie Halard rallied to beat Tom Nijssen and Brenda Schultz 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) in the decisive mixed doubles. Schultz earlier beat Halard 6-0, 6-3 in only 52 minutes in women's singles, then Fleurian tied it 1-1 by defeating Nijssen 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 6-3 in a men's singles match that had only two service breaks. MORE TENNIS: Defending champion Stefan Edberg, playing in his first tournament since splitting with longtime coach Tony Pickard, beat Ronald Agenor of Haiti 6-2, 7-6 (10-8) in the opening round of the $625,000 Qatar Open in Doha, Qatar. Also reaching the second round was Sweden's Magnus Larsson, who won the year-ending Grand Slam Cup at Munich last month. He beat Slovakia's Karol Kucera, ranked 54th in the world, 6-1, 6-4. Larsson is seeded third. No.2 seed Michael Stich of Germany plays France's Olivier Delaitre today. Australian Davis Cup teammates Patrick Rafter, Richard Fromberg and Jamie Morgan won first-round matches in the Australian Hardcourt in Adelaide, Australia, while Wally Masur stumbled. Rafter, seeded fifth, beat compatriot Todd Woodbridge 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 after trailing 1-3 in the first set. Fromberg defeated Jonathan Stark of the United States 6-4, 6-2 and Morgan beat Byron Black of Zimbabwe 4-6, 6-2, 6-4. Germany's Carl Uwe-Steeb beat Masur, who entered on a wild card after being sidelined with an Achilles' tendon injury, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5). In other first-round matches, seventh-seeded Renzo Furlan of Italy beat countryman Gianluca Pozzi 6-3, 6-4 and Arnaud Boetsch of France defeated Bryan Shelton of the United States 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-2). South Korean Park Sung-hee defeated Indonesian teenager Natalia Soetrisno 6-1, 6-3 in the first round of the Indonesian Open women's tournament in Jakarta. YACHTING: French solo sailor Isabelle Autissier said she was "very grateful" to the Australian navy for rescuing her Sunday after she spent more than four days stranded in her stricken yacht in the southern Pacific. A helicopter crew lifted Autissier, 38, who was competing in the BOC Round the World race, by winch off her stricken 18-meter yacht, the Ecureuil Poitou Charentes II, 750 nautical miles southwest of Adelaide. She was taken to the HMAS Darwin. "I am here because of you, and I will never forget that," she told the Seahawk helicopter crew after arriving at the Royal Australian Air Force Edinburgh base, north of Adelaide. Autissier will remain in Australia awaiting the results of a search for her yacht, she said. AUTOS: Greg Sacks has been selected to drive Pontiacs fielded by Sabco Racing this year on the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit. "Greg is a hard charger. He can hustle a car around the track, and I like that," said the team's co-owner, Dick Brooks, a former competitor on stock car racing's biggest circuit. "We share the same philosophy. We were looking for a driver that we could put in the car and turn loose. That's exactly what we've found." Sacks, who won Pepsi 400 at Daytona International Speedway in 1984, replaces Bobby Hamilton as driver for the second-year team. Sacks, who drove last season for D.K. Ulrich, has two career poles, three top-five and 20 top-10 finishes. SKIING: Olympic medalists Picabo Street and Hilary Lindh of the U.S. Ski Team each won North American Championship Series super-G races at Sugarloaf USA in Carrabassett Valley, Maine. Street, the 1994 Olympic downhill silver medalist from Sun Valley, Idaho, won the first event in 1 minute, 22.54 seconds. Kate Pace of Canada, the world downhill champion, was second at 1:23.89, followed by Lindh, the 1992 Olympic downhill silver medalist from Juneau, Alaska, at 1:24.03. Lindh won the second race in 1:11.31, followed by Pace in 1:11.93 and Lindsey Roberts of Canada in 1:12.10. HOCKEY: Canada clinched its third consecutive world junior hockey championship with its 8-5 defeat of Russia and Finland's 3-3 tie with Sweden. "It's a great feeling," said Jamie Storr, Canada's No. 1 goaltender. "I'm just lucky to be on a great team." Sweden (4-1-1) had to beat Finland in Calgary, Alberta, to keep its hopes for a gold medal alive after Canada's victory over Russia in Red Deer. Finland scored two late third-period goals to salvage its tie. Canada has won five of the past six world junior championships. Sweden, whose only world junior gold medal came in 1981, has won the silver medal the past three years. _ Compiled from Times Wires