Hopman Cup 2012: Australia v Spain

Written by: Staff on 31st December 2011

BNP Paribas 2011 Masters Tennis Tournament

Hopman Cup 2012: Australia v Spain

Fernando Verdasco of Spain returns the ball to Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic during their first round match at the BNP Paribas 2011 Masters tennis tournament in Paris, France, 08 November 2011. EPA/HORACIO VILLALOBOS |

(Courtesy of the ITF)

Australia and Spain begin 2012 at Hyundai Hopman Cup inside Perth’s Burswood Dome on New Year’s Day as Jarmila Gajdosova and Lleyton Hewitt team up for the first time up against Anabel Medina Garrigues and Fernando Verdasco.

Medina Garrigues and Gajdosova are both terrific singles and doubles players as well, ranked in the top 41 in both disciplines, and combine that with Verdasco and Hewitt who are both former top seven players, then an exciting Session to kick off the New Year certainly should eventuate.

Gajdosova is making her debut alongside Hewitt at the Hyundai Hopman Cup to form a new Australian team as they attempt to win the country’s first tournament since Jelena Dokic and Mark Philippoussis were victorious in 1999.

Meanwhile, Spain has a rich Hopman Cup history having won it three times previously in 1990, 2002 and 2010. Not only that, but the Spanish are fresh off winning the Davis Cup in 2011 and Verdasco was a big part of that triumph.

While surprisingly it will be the first time that former top 10 players Hewitt and Verdasco have faced each other, Gajdosova and Medina Garrigues are no strangers to playing one another.

It is the Australian who has won all three previous meetings as well. The first came way back in the 2003 US Open when she beat the Spaniard 6-0, 7-5. Gajdosova then also won at the 2011 French Open 7-6, 6-4 and also in 2011 at Beijing 6-3, 6-0.

Despite the confidence Gajdosova can take from those three previous meetings, Medina Garrigues is one of the strongest all-round players in the game.

The Spaniard 29-year-old has amassed quite the career for herself already having won 11 singles and 18 doubles titles on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, and she remains ranked No. 27 in the world in singles and No. 30 in doubles having been as high as 16 and 3 in both.

Hewitt might not have played Verdasco before, but is certainly familiar with the Burswood Dome and the Hopman Cup.

This is Hewitt’s seventh visit to Perth for the tournament and he so far holds an impressive 20-13 win-loss record made up of 13-5 in singles action and 7-8 in mixed doubles.

Meanwhile, Verdasco is playing at the Hyundai Hopman Cup for the first time but his partner Medina Garrigues isn’t.

She partnered Tommy Robredo in 2007 to form a Spanish team that made the Final before falling to Russia’s team of Nadia Petrova and Dmitry Tursunov.

During that week, she recorded strong singles wins over Croatia’s Sanja Ancic and India’s Sania Mirza, and performed well in the mixed doubles alongside Robredo.

Now with two Hopman Cup debutants in Gajdosova and Verdasco, who partner two players in Hewitt and Medina Garrigues who are proven strong performers in Perth at the Burswood Dome, the New Year’s Day Session of Hyundai Hopman Cup XXIV is set to be an enthralling one.

Original link:

http://hopmancup.com/content.php?idphc=43

Topics: Anabel Medina Garrigues, Fernando Verdasco, Jarmila Gajdosova, Lleyton Hewitt