The 2014 season is already here with action starting up first at the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia, The offseason, at least to us, has seemed much shorter this year and we will have to see what kind of form the players are in. The Hopman cup is a co-gender 2 person national team event with round robin play followed by a final between the winners of each group of 4 teams. Each match features men’s singles, women singles and a mixed doubles match: Best 2 out of 3. Hard Courts are, of course, the surface for the entire Australian swing.
Hyundai Hopman Cup
ITF Team Event
Perth, Australia
December 28-January 4, 2014
Prize Money $1,000,000
Group A: Poland, Canada, Italy, Australia
Poland
The lowest ranked Male professional in the field, current world number 288 Grzegorz Panfil will be part of the Polish tandem. The 25 year old who will turn 26 during the tournament. He played in qualifying for a few ATP events in 2013 but failed to reach the main draw for any of them, and otherwise split his time between future and challengers, primarily in Europe and mostly on clay.
His best result was a futures title last year and he did move up 200 spots in the rankings last year, hoping to continue that run of play and break into the top 200 or better in 2014.
Contrast that against the backdrop of the highest ranked women’s player at the tournament hailing from his home nation. Agnieszka Radwanska is here to win, not to represent. Having Janowicz withdraw could take some of the wind out of her sails and dent her singles performance. Or it could be a teaching moment.
Canada
Milos Raonic briefly broke into the top 10 in 2013, with 2 ATP titles and a Masters final, the most noteworthy thing on his body of work last year. He will try to top that this year as he continues to work with Ivan Ljubicic as his coach, a switch he made midway through last year that yielded great results. This will be everyone’s first look at the big serving Canadian in 2014. He is one of the top men in the field and the Canadian team could hit their stride if Eugenie Bouchard plays well.
Italy
Andreas Seppi kept himself in the top 30 by year end 2013, but did drop out of the 20, meaning the veteran Italian who turns 30 soon will have work to do this year. He was just above .500 in 2013, posting a 30-29 record that included 5 ATP semifinal showings and a challenger title at the end of the year. He’s a consistent quality player but he seems to have lost a little edge to his game compared to previous years. Time will tell if he returns to top form or continues to decline.
Speaking of veteran, Italy can’t do better than Flavia Pennetta on the women’s side. Though she’s 1-4 against Radwanska, she has beaten her in Australia and is 4-0 against Stosur. She’s never matched up against Bouchard, but she will do her part for Italy.
Australia
Everyone will be anxious to see Bernard Tomic play, and probably not for the best of reasons, the 21 year old Aussie slipped out of the top 50 after posting a 25-22 ATP record that was much worse than it appears given 7 of those wins came in Australia, where he went 7-1 in the month of January 2013, with an ATP title to defend coming up. He slumped hard in the fall of 2013 and with family and focus issues continuing to plague him, nobody really knows what to expect in terms of his form, mentality and fitness, none the less the pressure of playing at home in Australia will be intense this year.
And Sam Stosur. Who knows what to expect from her. Can she lend Tomic some gravitas? Nobody wants to do better in Hopman Cup than these two. If this pair succeeds in 2014, it begins here as a team.
Group B: USA, France, Czech Republic, Spain
USA
Big John Isner cemented himself as a top 15 player in 2013 with 2 ATP titles and a great 39-24 record on the ATP tour, he continues to play his best in the US, primarily on fast surfaces, but he has a great opportunity down under as he has no points to defend in the month of January after playing just 1 match last year because of injury, at the warm up tournament in Sydney, and then withdrawing from the 2013 AO. The US has a strong team this year with quality WTA player Sloane Stephens complementing Isner and they have a chance to win this thing. By all estimates, Stephens is ready to succeed early in the season Down Under, just as she did last year.
France
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is playing the big exo in Abu Dhabi that is going on right now and he beat Andy Murray thus far, meaning that his form seems good but he may be tired having to travel to Perth to play this event. He went 39-16 at the ATP level in 2013 with 1 title and had a good but not great year by his standards. He was dogged by knee problems yet again, primarily at the tail end of the year and hopefully he is fully healthy from all that and ready to play his exciting, flashy brand of tennis that is a fan favorite.
And look, he’s getting some help this year! Mathilde Johannson was an uninspired and underperforming choice for the French last year. This year, they have an improvement in Alize Cornet, who had a career year in 2013.
Czech Republic
35 year old Radek Stepanek is the veteran in this field, he went 16-17 at the ATP level in 2013 with some nice challenger results and a comeback from injury issues, he is a gifted doubles player and Petra Kvitova is a solid WTA player meaning the Czech team should have dark horse status at this tournament. Then there’s the whole X factor of their personal relationship. Help or hurt? It could have an impact.
Spain
Tommy Robredo withdrew for the Spanish team, meaning veteran journeyman Daniel Munoz De La Nava will be his replacement. The 31 year old has never broken into the top 120 and was 2-5 at the ATP level last year, only playing 2 challenger matches after the US Open, losing both. DMDLN is a decent hard court player but this Spanish team is probably the weakest team in the tournament put together, I don’t expect them to win any matches.
Annabel Medina Garrigues is a scrapper, but there is simply no leadership on this team.
Predictions:
Group A:
Italy d. Poland
Canada d. Australia
Canada d. Poland
Australia d. Italy
Canada d. Italy
Australia d. Poland
Canada advances as Milos should win all his singles matches. Bouchard should compete with all her opponents in women’s singles and Milos is a formidable weapon in the mixed doubles.
Radwanska should play well for Poland but Panfil is just not up to this level of competition.
The Aussies with Tomic/Stosur are really unpredictable, and the Italians are veteran and consistent but probably don’t have enough firepower to advance.
Group B:
Czech Republic d. Spain
USA d. Spain
Czech Republic d. France
USA d. France
France d. Spain
USA d. Czech Republic
USA advances as Isner/Stephens is a strong duo that should be healthy and ready to rock.
Kvitova/Stepanek is also strong but Radek may struggle in the singles.
Spanish team is weakest overall and Tsonga/Cornet should compete but I don’t see them reaching the final.
Final:
USA d. Canada
Would be fun to see a North American Hopman Cup Final and Raonic-Isner will be a serve war that could go either way, but Stephens is probably a little better than Bouchard, and the doubles should also be fun, could go either way but I’ll pick the Yanks. (Steen)
And I’ll pick Team Canada. Sloane is 2-1 head to head with Bouchard in three of the closest matches you’ll find, and Isner is vs. Raonic 2-0 in a pair of tighty whiteys. The Canadians are due against the U.S. (Steve)
—Steen Kirby & Steve Fogleman, Tennis East Coast
Tennis Atlantic 