Poland defeats USA to win the 2015 Hopman Cup
Steen Kirby,Tennis Atlantic
Hopman Cup
Team Poland, made up of golden generation stars Agnieszka Radwanska and Jerzy Janowicz toppled Team USA’s Serena Williams and John Isner to capture the 2015 Hopman Cup crown.
Isner performed well but it was Serena who would come up short for team USA in the final, as Radwanska beat her in 3 sets in the women’s singles match, and she teamed up with Janowicz to win the deciding mixed doubles match in straight sets. Isner’s straight set victory over Janowicz forced a decisive mixed doubles match but Poland was simply a stronger team this week as Serena struggled in an unusual manner in all of her matches.
In other notable round robin action, everyone in group A, except Italy finished 2-1, as it was a parity filled group. Italy finished 0-3, in part due to Fabio Fognini taking a lackadaisical approach to tennis yet again. Team Czech Republic beat Team Canada, the Americans beat the Italians, Canada beat the USA thanks to singles wins by Eugenie Bouchard and Vasek Pospisil, and they also beat Italy, while team USA beat the Czechs. The lower ranked Adam Pavlasek performed well for the Czech team, earning a singles win over Fabio Fognini in 3 sets, and winning two out of his three mixed doubles matches with Lucie Safarova.
In group B, similar to group A, there was a lot of parity, the home Aussies would finish shut out at 0-3, and everyone else finished 2-1. Poland beat Australia, Great Britain beat France, the Poles beat the Brits, the French beat the Aussies, and the Poles, and the Brits beat the Aussies. Andy Murray turned in a notable performance for team GB, he went 3-0 in his singles matches with wins over Benoit Paire, Janowicz, and Marinko Matosevic without dropping a set. The formerly promising Frenchman Paire continues to languish, he finished 0-3 in his singles matches. Now most of the ATP and WTA stars of the Hopman Cup will continue their pre AO preparations with traditional tournament competition and tennis will return to the Perth Arena next year.
