Spain Make Dominant Run to Final
8/01/2010
By Chris Pike
SPAIN has made an unblemished run right through to the Final of Hyundai Hopman Cup XXII and now Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and are confident of winning Spain’s third title in Perth.
Martinez Sanchez and Robredo have beaten the USA, Romania and Australia all 3-0 to dominate Group A action at this year’s Cup to have been the most impressive team of the tournament despite coming in as No. 4 seeds.
Martinez Sanchez is ranked No. 26 and six in doubles, both career highs, so she came into 2010 with great confidence and now that has grown with her three impressive straight sets singles wins over Melanie Oudin, Sorana Cirstea and Sam Stosur.
Her mixed doubles has also been superbly impressive so the 27-year-old has been delighted with her first trip to Perth so far.
“I’m playing better and better, and I’m really happy to arrive in the Final. I’m unbeaten here so this is a good start to the year,” Martinez Sanchez said.
“We have one more match now for Spain in the Final. We are playing very good this week, Tommy and me. We are looking forward now for the Final.”
Robredo has also played tremendously all week to win his men’s singles with John Isner, Victor Hanescu and Lleyton Hewitt. It’s his fourth trip to Perth and he now has a 10-3 win-loss record overall in singles and 9-3 in doubles.
He and Martinez Sanchez have played great all week, but now Robredo doesn’t care how they play in the Final as long as they win. He also doesn’t care who he plays with Great Britain, Russia and Kazakhstan all capable of making the Final from Group B.
“Now we’ve played great and are in the Final, but now in the Final we don’t care if we play good or bad. We just want to win. I can beat anybody and anybody can beat me, that’s the sport rules. I’ll just try to keep working and then let’s see if in the Final we can do a great job,” Robredo said.
“Anyone I will meet here is going to be great preparation. I played with Isner who is a great server and player, then I play with Hanescu one set and then Hewitt, so any player who is going to be in the Final is going to be a great player so it will be great to play one of them.
“I always like to play the best players, so in my case to play Murray would be the best player here on the Hopman Cup. If you ask her maybe she wants another one, but anyway the most important thing is that we are in the Final.”
While he’s happy with how he is playing, Robredo knows he can still improve and did realise that Hewitt wasn’t 100 per cent for their match on Thursday.
“Obviously always we can improve if not we would be world No. 1 and we are not. I played really well, served great and also I have to say that Hewitt at the beginning was not 100 per cent fit. He had some problems and then I got that chance to win the first set pretty easy,” he said.
“Then in the second I think he was improving the level, but I was there working hard and on my serve I was all the time perfect. That gave me the chance to break him once and win the set.”
Robredo wouldn’t keep coming back to the Cup if he didn’t enjoy the experience and has now spent four of his New Year’s here, and it already holds a special place in his heart given he won it in 2002, but it would be even better if he won for a second time.
“Obviously it’s special. It’s the first tournament of the year, normally when we come here it is the New Year so that’s special and also the people here treat us so well,” he said.
“It’s great to have this chance to win the diamond ball for being the champions. All of these things make it special and always at the beginning of the year I’m playing great, so hopefully I can keep going one more day and win that special trophy.”
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