Spain Wins Third Cup Over Great Britain
SPAIN’s Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Tommy Robredo rebounded from a shock women’s singles loss against Great Britain to win the men’s and mixed doubles rubbers to win the Final of Hyundai Hopman Cup XXII 2-1.
Great Britain’s 15-year-old star in the making Laura Robson gave her country the perfect start in their first Cup Final by shocking world No. 26 Martinez Sanchez 6-1, 7-6 (6) to win her first singles match of the week.
That set things up beautifully for her world No. 4 partner Andy Murray to continue his form from the week that saw him not drop a set. He looked likely to do that by winning the first set over Tommy Robredo 6-1, but the Spaniard world No. 16 bounced back winning the next two 6-4, 6-3 to force a deciding mixed doubles.
The first set went right down to the tie-break and Britain earned three match points at 6-3, but couldn’t capitalise and Spain did on their first opportunity. The second again appeared to be heading to a tie-break until Martinez Sanchez and Robredo broke Robson’s serve on the last game to win the set 7-5 and the championship.
The win is Spain’s third in the 22-year history of the Hopman Cup after Arantxa Sanchez Vicario won with brother Emilio Sanchez in 1990 and then Robredo in 2002.
Spain is now equal with the Slovak Republic as the second most successful Cup nation, behind the USA who has won it on five occasions.
Robson had competed well all week, especially in the first sets, against Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova, Germany’s Sabine Lisicki and even Russia’s Elena Dementieva, but it all clicked for the 15-year-old in the Final against Martinez Sanchez.
The Spaniard world No. 26 had not dropped a set in her singles matches all week in Group A, but the pressure of the Final and the confidence oozing from Robson proved too much for her in the first set.
Robson took that out by playing an incredibly cool set defying her age and the pressure of the Final by winning it 6-1. The second set was a closer affair and remained on serve until Martinez Sanchez broke Robson to go to a 5-3 lead.
The young Brit was able to break straight back and it eventually went to the tie-break. Martinez Sanchez went up 2-0, but Robson hit back to lead 6-2 and have four match points. She lost them all, but gained control again with a superb forehand winner and then closed out the biggest win of her short career.
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“Last time I was with Arantxa, this time with Maria Jose and I think that this one is more special because beating Andy Murray on singles and then the mixed, that it was so close. So today everything was going on a bad position, in a bad way and then we could come back we are both very happy.”
Spain’s Tommy Robredo.