Tennis Atlantic

Team Australia Wins Hopman Cup 2016
Steen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

The young gun tandem of Nick Kyrgios and Daria Gavrilova put together a great Hopman Cup campaign to win the top tier exhibition over a host of other talented teams.

Kyrgios beat fellow young Alexandr Zverev in three sets, top 5 player Andy Murray in straights, and Frenchman Kenny De Schepper by the same number of sets to help on the men’s singles side, then beat Alex Dolgopolov in the final. The hard hitting, charismatic Kyrgios looks to  be in great form heading into the Australian Open.

Gavrilova lost to Heather Watson and Carolina Garcia, but did beat Germany’s Sabine Lisicki, and finalist Elina Svitolina. The Australian team were most successful in mixed doubles, going 3-0 in their matches against Zverev/Lisicki, De Schepper/Garcia, and Murray/Watson. They won both of the singles ties in the final, and thus didn’t need to play an additional mixed doubles tie.

Dolgopolov, like Kyrgios, was 3 -0 in singles play. The unpredictable shotmaker defeated a retiring Lleyton Hewitt, Jack Sock, and Jiri Vesely to help his team reach the final.

Svitolina also went 3-0 in round robin play, with wins over Jarmila Wolfe, Victoria Duval, and Karolina Pliskova. She looks to be in good form heading into the coming weeks as well.

The exhibition schedule features “Fast 4” tennis this week, along with the Kooyong Classic, which once again features over a dozen ATP caliber players, and the Adelaide World Tennis Challenge, a smaller exhibition event.