Saturday, January 4, 2014

France wins Hopman Cup

France won the Hopman Cup title for the first time today (yesterday, if you're in Perth) when Alize Cornet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga defeated the Polish team of Agnieszka Radwanska and Grzegorz Panfil 2-1. Radwanska defeated Cornet, but France won both the men's singles and the mixed doubles matches. Poland, the top seed, made its Hopman Cup debut this year.

Meanwhile, Serena Williams got her season off to a great start by winning the title in Brisbane, where she defeated Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 7-5. The doubles title was taken by Alla Kudryavtseva and Anastasia Rodionova. They defeated Kristina Mladenovic and Galina Voskoboeva (Mladenovic does lose now and then).

Defending chamoion Li Na beat Peng Shuai 6-4, 7-5 to win the Shenzhen title. The doubles champions are Monica Niculescu and Klara Zakopalova. who beat Lyudmyla and Nadiya Kichenok in straight sets.

Finally, the new champion in Auckland is Ana Ivanovic, who beat Venus Williams in the final, but she took the long road to get to the trophy. Ivanovic was up 6-2, 5-1 when Williams turned things around and eventually won the second set 7-5. Ivanovic prevailed 6-4 in the third, however. The unseeded team of Sharon Fichman and Maria Sanchez won the doubles title. They defeated 3rd seeds Lucie Hradecka and Michaella Krajicek 2-6, 6-0, 10-4.
Grzegorz

3 comments:

Todd.Spiker said...

Hmmm... congrats to Cornet on winning, and having a good partner. After all, it's not often a player can win just one of four singles matches and walk away with a trophy. ;)

Hard to believe that was only the second-ever all-Chinese WTA singles final (after Zheng/Li in Estoril '06). Surely, it won't be the last, though.

Diane said...

I was glad for Cornet; she really seems to have picked up her career, which is as it should be. They were a good team. (And JWT had to deal with being partner to a poor hormonally-challenged athlete.)

Todd.Spiker said...

Hmmm, I wonder if any of the WTA players ever brought that little commentary of his up to him in Perth. Yeah, probably not.