Resurgent SERENA Heads for Hyundai HOPMAN CUP
28/10/2008
PERTH. USA, represented by US Open winner Serena Williams and another two time Hopman Cup Champion James Blake will be the top seeds for this year’s Hyundai Hopman Cup. The Russian brother/sister combination of world number 2 Dinara Safina and dual Grand Slam Champion Marat Safin will fill the number 2 position and be seeded to meet USA in the Final.
USA, the most successful nation in the 20-year history of the Hopman Cup having been victorious five times, is the last team to be confirmed.
France, with Gilles Simon (world ranking 10) and Alize Cornet (world ranking 18) have risen through the rankings to become the third seed and Australia with former world number 1 Lleyton Hewitt and Western Australia’s Casey Dellacqua, will fill the fourth position.
Tournament Director Paul McNamee said “Serena’s return to number 1 was one of the biggest sports stories of the year. There’ll be a lot of interest in Serena, but equally as much in Lleyton Hewitt’s tournament comeback. It’ll be a big week.”
Serena Williams, the nine-time Grand Slam winner and dual Olympic Gold Medallist, capped off a sensational return to the top of the women’s game with an emphatic performance at the recent US Open in New York. She completed the tournament without losing a set, culminating in victory over then world number 2 Jelena Jankovic and gaining back the world number 1 ranking after a six year lapse.
Serena Williams is a two time Champion at the Hyundai Hopman Cup. She won Hopman XX partnering Mardy Fish and Hopman XV with James Blake. Serena has an impressive 100% win loss record at the Hopman Cup – having never lost a match. This will be her third appearance in Perth. Her partner James Blake has been just as successful winning with Williams and also with Lindsay Davenport the following year.
James Blake has spent the last few years ensconced in the world’s top 10 with a career high ranking of 4. He currently sits at 10 on the race and 11 in the rankings as he chases a spot in the year-end Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai. The highlight of his year was undoubtedly the Beijing Olympic Games where he defeated Roger Federer in the quarterfinals. He is one of the most popular players in Perth having first participated in Hopman XII as a 19 year old Harvard student on the threshold of his professional career.
The Hyundai Hopman Cup XXI Teams in seeded order are:
(1) USA: Serena Williams and James Blake
(2) Russia: Dinara Safina and Marat Safin
(3) France: Alize Cornet and Gilles Simon
(4) Australia: Casey Dellacqua and Lleyton Hewitt
(5) Italy: Flavia Pennetta and Simone Bolelli
(6) Germany: Sabine Lisicki and Nicolas Kiefer
(7) Slovak Republic: Dominika Cibulkova and Dominik Hrbaty
(8) Winner Asian Hopman Cup
The Hyundai Hopman Cup is the Official Mixed Teams Championship of the International Tennis Federation, and has come to be regarded as the world’s most prestigious invitational tournament. It is a round robin, consisting of two groups of four teams where all teams play each other once with the winners of each group progressing to the Final.
The Asian Hopman Cup will be played November 12-15 in Kazakhstan.
The 21st Hyundai Hopman Cup will be played at the Burswood Dome from 3 – 9 January 2009. It will be televised on ABC and Fox Sports.
For further information call Rosita Stangl on 08 9367 8884 or 0409 117 157.
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