Great Britain Join Spain in Hopman Cup Final
8/01/2010
GREAT Britain has come out on top of Group B at the Hyundai Hopman Cup to advance to the Final against Spain with a thrilling win over Russia inside the Burswood Dome on Friday.
Coming into the Session, Britain, Russia and Kazakhstan were all still a chance of booking a spot in Saturday’s Final against the Spanish team of Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Tommy Robredo.
Great Britain 15-year-old old Laura Robson fell in two sets to world No. 5 Russian Elena Dementieva, but it was a good effort by the youngster in the first set to only lose 4-6. Dementieva then dominated the second 6-0.
Andy Murray put on his third clinic of the week in the men’s singles to dominate Igor Andreev 6-1, 6-0 in 50 minutes.
It then came down to the mixed doubles and Britain went up 6-4, 3-1 before the Russians fought back. Dementieva and Andreev forced a second set tie-break before claiming that eight points to six to force a deciding Match Tie-break, which would determine if Kazakhstan was still alive.
A Russian win would mean that Kazakhstan could make the Final with a mixed doubles win over Germany following Yaroslava Shvedova and Andrey Golubev’s singles win against Germany on Court 1.
However, Robson and Murray held on 10 points to six to make the Final and hold off the Russian charge and to leave Kazakhstan deflated watching on the TV in the locker room.
The win takes Britain to its first Hopman Cup Final and Robson knows what she wants to win on Saturday for.
“I want those diamonds,” Robson said.
Her partner Murray was quick to praise Robson’s mixed doubles form to allow Britain to make the Final. He’s also looking forward to his fourth career meeting with Robredo and wants nothing short of winning the Hopman Cup now.
“I’ve got to say thanks to Laura. She was awesome today and did a great job. In the mixed the guys are supposed to dominate a match, but every time I tried to we lost the point so I just let her do it all herself, and she did great,” Murray said.
“I’ve played Tommy a few times. Twice last year I beat him and he won once against me two or three years ago. It will be a tough match, he has played great here. Laura definitely has a chance to win her match and I definitely want to win the tournament.”
With her partner Andreev facing a massive challenge against Murray, Dementieva had to take care of business against Robson, but found the going tough in the opening set.
She was struggling to land her first serve in and the 15-year-old Brit capitalised by breaking her serve twice to even things at 4-4. However, Dementieva’s experience shone through as she scored another break and then served out the first set.
Robson’s challenge ended there, though, as the Russian showed her class in the second set to close it out 6-0 by taking out the last eight games against the young Brit 13 years her junior.
Dementieva was tremendously impressed with Robson, though, but glad to get the win and she’s enjoying her first appearance in Perth.
“She’s playing unbelievably well for 15 years old and very enthusiastic on the court – you know trying to hit as hard as possible. She was very professional so I was very impressed with her,” Dementieva said.
“It’s been a good week here in Perth. I’ve had some good games and some good matches. I’m really enjoying my time here.”
Murray began his match with Andreev in ominous form winning his first game on serve inside a minute and then racing to a 3-0 lead. Andreev then got on the board, but it would prove his only game of the match against the dominant world No. 4.
Murray closed out the match winning 6-0 in the second set to put Britain in the box seat for the Final.
“I played really well and didn’t make too many mistakes. I got off to a good start in all of the matches this week, which helps and settled me down a little bit. Today was definitely the best I’ve played so far,” Murray said.
“You’ve just got to keep going for your shots and try a few things out against the net quite a lot at the start of the match. I started playing really aggressively on return of serve and everything went well. I was just happy that all the things I worked on the practice court were good.”
Unfortunately for Kazakhstan, their form came too little too late, but they played great tennis all week and dominated Germany in the singles matches on Friday.
Shvedova set the pace when she downed Sabine Lisicki in straight sets 6-4 7-6 (3). The Kazak was not only competing against the German but also against her flu like symptoms. She was not in the best shape on court.
During games she was struggling for air and coughing constantly. But she survived Lisicki’s powerful long shots and the few drop shots she played. It was a big and impressive win for Shvedova against the 22nd ranked German to go with her win over Laura Robson this week.
Golubev came out on court slightly more confident after Shvedova had kept Kazakhstan’s Final hopes alive. He powered through the match in under an hour winning 6-2 6-1.
Golubev served seven aces with three of them winning him the games. Philipp Kohlschreiber constantly played to Golubev’s backhand, his weaker stroke, until the Kazakhstani found pace to get around the shots and hit off-forehand winners.
They were all set to go out for their mixed doubles clash to play for a Final spot, but Britain ended those chances by beating Russia.
The Final of Hyundai Hopman Cup XXII will now be between fourth-seeds Spain and third-seeds Great Britain starting at 9.30am (WST) on Saturday.
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