Last year’s champions Australians Nick Kyrgios and Daria Gavrilova have already found the exit route from 2017 Mastercard Hopman Cup at Perth. In their last Group B match against USA, they lost 1-2 to finish last. Americans Jack Sock and CoCo Vandeweghe have had a great run and they have made it to the final even before Sock defeated Kyrgios on Thursday. While Australia finished last in Group rankings, Spain and the Czech Republic are trying hard for the second place. In Group A, Federer was stunned by German teenager Alexander Zverev but Switzerland still won the tie as Belinda Bencic scored an easy victory over Andrea Petkovic and later, Federer/Bencic combined to outclass Zverev/Petkovic. However, Switzerland will have to beat France to qualify for the final.
Roger Federer is having a whale of a time in Perth’s 2017 Hopman Cup. Despite his three-set loss to Germany’s 19-year old Alexander Zverev, he sat in the courtside box to watch his partner Belinda Bencic play against Andrea Petkovic. Federer himself had a set of bongo drummers with him and he beat them every time Bencic scored a winner. It was a great musical performance from the tennis superstar on the Afro-Cuban percussion instruments. Inside sources revealed that Federer has been signed by Tourism Western-Australia for a seven-figure fee and his bongo drumming will be used by his sponsors as advertisement to promote tourism in the Australian state. Earlier, Zverev fought hard against Federer to repeat his 2016 Halle win over the Swiss with a score of 7-6, 6-7, 7-6. But Federer’s match spirits did not dim as he watched Belinda Bencic demolish the defenses of Germany’s Petrovic with a 6-3 6-4 victory in 77 minutes. With the tie leveled at 1-1, Federer/Bencic returned for the mixed doubles match and handed a 4-1, 4-1 thrashing to Zverev/Petkovic. Now Switzerland have a must-win tie on Friday against France. The winner between the two will play the Saturday’s final against USA. Like Switzerland, France have also won their two ties against Great Britain and Germany and the combination of Richard Gasquet and Kristina Mladenovic is doing wonders for them. If France beat Switzerland on Friday, they go through to the final.
In Group A, defending champions Australia, Spain and Czech Republic are already out of final contention. On Thursday, Nick Kyrgios suffered his first singles loss in 2017 Hopman Cup. Playing with heavily strapped knee against his American friend Jack Sock, Kyrgios succumbed to a 2-6, 2-6 defeat in just 49 minutes. Though Daria Gavrilova restored parity with a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 win over CoCo Vandeweghe, Australia lost the mixed doubles, where Matthew Ebden replaced the injured Kyrgios. The pair of Gavrilova/Ebden was no match in the 1-4, 1-4 loss against Sock/Vandeweghe. Though Gavrilova’s win brought a semblance of national pride, Australia were whitewashed 0-3 in the tournament. Meanwhile on Friday, Spain and Czech Republic will fight for the second place in Group A behind USA, who have had a roaring tournament with Jack Sock and CoCo Vandeweghe winning most of their matches.
