Important Dates in the Hopman Cup’s History
December 1984: Australian players Paul McNamee, Charlie Fancutt and Pat Cash discuss the idea of a world mixed teams championship.
January 1988: McNamee retires from competitive tennis and with Fancutt obtains the endorsement of Mrs Lucy Hopman, the widow of legendary Australian player and coach Harry Hopman and a commitment from Wimbledon champion Cash to head Australia’s inaugural campaign.
April 1988: The West Australian Government’s promotional arm, EventsCorp, wins the Hopman Cup rights for Perth in an agreement with Paul McNamee Enterprises.
May 1988: The new Burswood International Resort Casino agrees to transform the Superdome into a tennis venue as PME signs a three-year agreement with Channel 7 to telecast the event.
June 1988: The Hopman Cup is announced to the world at a press conference with the WA Lawn Tennis Association sanctioning the event.
July 1988: Tennis Queen Steffi Graf is named as the No. 1 player for the inaugural year.
September 1988: A nation-wide television launch names Swan Gold, the WA beer, as the major sponsor.
November 1988: The Governor of WA, Professor Gordon Reid, helps conduct the initial draw; tennis legend Teddy Tinling accepts an invitation to be a special guest and world-renowned tennis writer Rex Bellamy endorses the Hopman Cup concept in an article in the London Times.
December 1988: The Hopman Cup’s first competitor, Sweden’s Catarina Lindqvist, arrives on December 17; the Cup’s first player Christmas Party is held on December 25; the first Swan Gold Pro-am is staged on the 27th and Aussies Cash and the adopted Aussie Hana Mandlikova beat Great Britain 2-1 to open the tournament in front of 5000 spectators on the 28th. Steffi Graf wins her debut match for West Germany and then teams with pop legend Cliff Richard to win the inaugural Pro-am.
January 1989: After the inaugural New Year’s Eve Ball, a packed house of 7500 fans watch Czechoslovakia’s Helena Sukova and Miloslav Mecir beat Australia’s Cash and Mandlikova in the Final … watched by a viewing audience of millions around the world.
April 1989: The second Hopman Cup by Swan Gold announces that 12 countries will compete with a 40-percent prizemoney lift to $350,000.
August 1989: John McEnroe is named as the No. 1 player for HCII, along with newly-crowned French Open winner Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.
December 1989: The tournament opens on the 26th (Boxing Day) with Italy beating Sweden and Australia downing Yugoslavia.
January 1990: Spain celebrates New Year’s Day with victory over the United States in the Final, with Emilio Sanchez beating John McEnroe and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario downing Pam Shriver, with the US taking the mixed doubles in between the singles.
March 1990: Tennis Australia officially sanctions the Hopman Cup.
December 1990: The Hopman Cup format changes with the ladies singles to open each Tie, followed by the men’s and then the mixed doubles, with prizemoney increasing to $400,000. The opening match on the 27th sees Australia beat Great Britain, with local girl Liz Smylie losing to Sarah Loosemore, but teaming with Pat Cash (who beat Jeremy Bates) to win the mixed.
January 1991: The final is on the 3rd and produces an upset result as Yugoslavian teenage star Monica Seles and hardened campaigner Goran Prpic beat the United States of America pair Zina Garrison and David Wheaton, in front of a sell-out crowd of 8500 taking the week’s total to 63,000.
March 1991: Paul McNamee announces that the Hopman Cup will stay at Burswood for the next five years, with prizemoney jumping to $600,000.
October 1991: German champions (and former world No. 1s) Boris Becker and Steffi Graf named to pair up for the first time in their careers.
December 1991: Czechoslovakia win the opening Tie against Japan on the 27th. Swiss star Jakob Hlasek tops the bidding at the New Year’s Eve Ball charity auction, paying $10,000 for a Tom Curran surf board.
January 1992: German TV company SAT send a full crew to cover the Boris Becker-Steffi Graf appearance, reporting record ratings back home. Switzerland are the new champions with Manuela Maleeva-Fragniere and Jakob Hlasek beating the Czechs, Helena Sukova and Karel Novacek.
March 1992: Pepsi-Cola announce a four-year sponsorship deal with the Hopman Cup; prizemoney increases to $700,000.
December 1992: WA pair Siobhan Drake-Brockman and James Sekulov win the inaugural Junior Hopman Cup event.
January 1993: Germany wins the Cup with Steffi Graf and Michael Stich beating Spain’s brother-sister duo Arantxa and Emilio Sanchez. Another record attendance, with 70,500 for the week.
May 1993: The Hopman Cup, in conjunction with Tennis West and the Perth City Council, announce a National Club Doubles competition. Cup prizemoney rises to $760,000, with $200,000 for the winners.
November 1993: Asian countries Thailand and Indonesia confirm their participation in the Junior Hopman Cup.
December 1993: Victoria beat New South Wales to win the Junior Hopman Cup; the TEL electronic lines system is introduced for the first major tournament in the world.
January 1994: Top seeds Czech Republic (Petr Korda and Jana Novotna) beat Germany (Bernd Karbacher/Anke Huber) to win the Cup.
December 1994: ABC Channel 2 takes over the television coverage from the Seven Network.
January 1995: Pictures of Wimbledon champion Boris Becker in a light-hearted mood pretending to be a ball boy appear on newspaper front pages around the world. Germany’s Anke Huber and Becker beat Ukraine (Andrei Medvedev/Natalia Medvedeva) to win the Cup.
March 1995: Hopman Cup tournament director Paul McNamee is appointed tournament director of the Australian Open.
October 1995: Hyundai upgrades its sponsorship to be the new supporting sponsor and official car sponsor. A round-robin format with eight countries in two groups is announced for HCVIII.
November 1995: International teams South Africa, New Zealand, Thailand and Indonesia are confirmed for the Junior Hopman Cup.
December 1995: Contracts are signed to keep the Hopman Cup in Perth for three more years; Galaxy Premier Sports Network signs an agreement to televise every session on Pay-TV; five major sponsors are announced – Burswood, Pepsi, Hyundai, Tradelink and SunSmart.
January 1996: A new format sees eight countries contest a round-robin series, in two groups with each side playing three rivals and the top two nations meeting in the $700,000 tournament (the richest sporting event in Western Australia) with $200,000 for the winners. Croatian pair Goran Ivanisevic and Iva Majoli create history for their new country with victory over Switzerland (Marc Rosset/Martina Hingis) in a final where Rosset injured his hand (in a show of anger thumping a backboard) at 5-5 all in the deciding set of the mixed doubles and the team defaulted. Television coverage by the ABC national network saw 38 hours live in free-to-air, with the Galaxy Premier Sports Network broadcasting all the evening sessions. Legendary American tennis commentator Bud Collins was among the broadcast team.
August 1996: The International Tennis Federation announces it will officially sanction the Hopman Cup. South Africa, New Zealand, Chinese Taipei, Korea and Indonesia confirm their Junior Hopman Cup participation.
October 1996: Record prizemoney of $800,000 is announced for Hopman Cup IX.
January 1997: A magic moment for unheralded American college graduate Justin Gimelstob who came into the field at the last minute and partnered Chanda Rubin to victory over South Africa (Wayne Ferreira/Amanda Coetzer) to claim the first prize of $220,000.
May 1997: Hyundai named as major title sponsors in a five-year deal aimed at keeping the Hopman Cup in Perth.
October 1997: A new format is announced with two countries to contest a play-off the day before the event to determine the eighth nation in the round-robin field.
January 1998: Prizemoney rises to $900,000, with Romania and the Slovak Republic contesting the play-off, with Slovak pair Karina Habsudova and Karol Kucera winning entry to the tournament and then marching through to top their pool – and beat France (Mary Pierce/Cedric Pioline) in the rags-to-riches Final to claim the first prize of $220,000.
January 1999: France beat Zimbabwe in the play-off to complete the eight-nation field. Australia wins the Cup for the first time with adopted teenage star Jelena Dokic proving a giant-killer as she teams with Mark Philippoussis to beat Sweden’s Asa Carlsson and Jonas Bjorkman.
January 2000: The traditional Hopman Cup New Year’s Eve Ball is held on December 31 to see the 21st Century arrive, with the tournament starting on January 1. South Africans Amanda Coetzer and Wayne Ferreira beat Cup debutants Thailand, after Tamarine Tanasugarn and Paradorn Srichaphan win their way to the Final after beating Japan in the first Asian play-off. Hyundai Hopman Cup XII is the first tournament to experiment with new ITF rules, including a two-minute break at the end of each set regardless of the games-played tally and the elimination of the 90-second break after the first game of a set, with the players simply changing ends. ABC-TV introduces an expanded website that offers ball-by-ball coverage, with 25,000 hits in the first three days. Perth tennis identity Rob Casey is appointed assistant to Tournament Director Paul McNamee. A record crowd of 75,858 people attend the Cup.
January 2001: Prizemoney for Hyundai Hopman Cup XIII rises to $1-million, with $240,000 to be shared by the winners, Switzerland, who atone for their dramatic HCVIII loss, with Martina Hingis and Roger Federer beating USA’s Monica Seles and Jan-Michael Gambill. Another attendance record was set, with 79,057 people watching the 12 sessions.
January 2002: Spanish veteran Arantxa Sanchez Vicario is back for the seventh time and 10 years after her first Cup win she teams with Tommy Robredo to beat Americans Monica Seles and Jan-Michael Gambill, runners-up for a second successive year. Hyundai Hopman Cup XIV sees the introduction of the Match Tie-break for mixed doubles, being used when the score is one set all, regardless of whether they are “live” or “dead” rubbers and it’s the first team to score 10 points, with a margin of two, counting as a full 7-6 set. The tournament signals the end of Paul McNamee’s ownership, with his company, Paul McNamee Enterprises, handing over the rights to the International Tennis Federation. McNamee is to continue as Tournament Director, with former General Manager Rick Williams becoming Chief Executive Officer, reporting to a newly-formed ITF Board. ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti makes his first visit to Perth for the Cup. Tournament major sponsors Hyundai Automotive Distributors Australia announce a five-year $5-million extension of their sponsorship for naming rights.
January 2003: The annual Burswood Golf Challenge is played for the Roger Mackay Memorial Trophy, in honour of the recently-deceased WA golfer, who was a strong supporter of the Hopman Cup’s pro-am. Top-seeded American pair Serena Williams and James Blake break through to win a second Cup, beating Australians Alicia Molik and Lleyton Hewitt. It is the first time that both world No. 1s are in the field – Serena Williams and Lleyton Hewitt and they clash in the Final. The week’s attendance of 82,079 shatters the previous Cup record. Willetton fan Hilary Butcher is the one millionth patron to attend the Cup.
January 2004: The USA made it two in a row, with Lindsay Davenport stepping in at the last minute to replace an injured Serena Williams and partner James Blake to victory over Slovak Republic pair Daniela Hantuchova and Karol Kucera. Australia had qualified first in their Group, but was forced out of the Final with an injury to Alicia Molik. The Hyundai Hopman Cup website notches ten million hits during the week. Three well-known Cup stalwarts in Mrs Lucy Hopman – the widow of Harry Hopman – international TV commentator Fred Stolle and Davis Cup legend Neale Fraser are named as Ambassadors for the Cup. British pop star Sir Cliff Richard is the special guest at the New Year’s Eve Ball, 16 years after he appeared at the inaugural tournament.
January 2005: History repeats itself in the days immediately before Hopman Cup XVII when defending champion Lindsay Davenport withdraws with a damaged shoulder. Megann Shaughnessy steps in for her Cup debut, but victory couldn't be repeated by the USA. Instead it was the third-seeded Slovak Republic, with Dominik Hrbaty and Daniela Hantuchova beating the Americans in their round-robin clash to earn top place in Group B, leading to a Final duel with fourth-seeded Argentina (Giselo Dulko and Guillermo Coria), who also notched an upset with a Group A victory over top seeds and hot favourites, Russia (Anastasia Myskina and Marat Safin). A total of 77,176 people attend the Cup. For the first time, the event sees the replacement of a player mid-week with young South Australian Paul Baccanello flying in from Adelaide to deputise for injured Mark Philippoussis in Australia's last match, losing a tough contest to James Blake.
January 2006: Australia unveiled new contestants with Samantha Stosur and Wayne Arthurs making their Cup debuts. However, an injury to Arthurs saw youngster Todd Reid fly in as his replacement for the final two Ties. Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova and Marat Safin were the designated top seeds, but a late injury forced Safin out and Teimuraz Gabashvili was named as his replacement, but he too was injured and eventually Yuri Schukin played for Russia. This reshuffle left German pair Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Nicolas Kiefer the pre-Cup favourites. The introduction of the Hawkeye Officiating electronic system proved a success at its initial testing and ITF endorsement seemed likely. The system allows the players to challenge a lines call and a replay on the TV screen determines whether balls are in or out. Netherlands duo Michaella Krajicek and Peter Wessels won the Play-off and went through three rounds undefeated to meet the fourth-seeded Americans Taylor Dent and Lisa Raymond in the Final. In an history-making move, the Final went to a night session, allowing the ABC to televise it live, with victory going to the Americans in a thriller, winning the deciding mixed doubles in a Match Tie-break. Former Australian great Ken Rosewall was the Cup’s VIP for the year.
January 2007: The Hyundai Hopman Cup expanded into Asia, with the traditional Play-off replaced by an Asian Hopman Cup qualifying tournament, with India’s Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna emerging from the six-nation round robin to win a place in the Perth championship. Russia again earned the No. 1 seeding with Nadia Petrova and Dmitry Tursunov justifying that ranking to beat Spanish pair Anabel Medina Garrigues and Tommy Robredo to win their first Cup. The good start by Aussies Mark Philippoussis and Alicia Molik was thwarted by injury to Philippoussis and he was replaced by Nathan Healey. India justified their Asian Hopman Cup entry by finishing a close second in Group B, with their only loss being to Spain. The Hawkeye Officiating lines system was back in use after universal acceptance at major overseas tournaments. Locally-based Grand Slam icon Margaret Court was the Cup’s VIP.
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