Saturday 1 January 2011

2011 Tennis begins - The Hopman Cup

We are finally back to business in the tennis world as the new season kicks off! One of the many tournaments this week is the Hopman Cup as we begin our preparation for the Australian Open. Last year saw the fascinating partnership between Laura Robson and Andy Murray which made this one of my favourite tournaments of 2010. It's a shame that the likes of Serena Williams and Gael Monfils have had to pull out with injury, however there are still a host of top names including Justine Henin, Andy Murray, Ana Ivanovic, Novak Djokovic and Francesca Schiavone.

Djokovic and Ivanovic are the favourites to win with all bookmaker however this tournament always throws up some surprises. Last year GB reached the final and if Robson can build on the experience from last year then they should be even stronger than last year. I also think that the USA will be tough to beat with big serving John Isner and the fiesty Bethanie Mattek Sands, who is also an extremely accomplished doubles player. The outsiders for the competiton are Kazakhstan with many bookmakers quoting 33/1. Last year they were a surprise package narrowly missing out on a place in the final. Both Shvedova and Golubev have shown considerable improvements in their singles games and therefore should not be underestimated in this competition.

Prediction for the final - Serbia v Great Britain

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