High-flying duo Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Stosur will attempt to break Australia’s 11-year Hopman Cup title drought when the $1 million ITF mixed-teams event gets underway in Perth on Saturday.

Australia’s only Hopman Cup triumph came in 1999 when unseeded pair Mark Philippoussis and Jelena Dokic upset Sweden’s Asa Carlsson and Jonas Bjorkman in the final.

The host nation has reached just one final since then but world No.22 Hewitt and world No.13 Stosur are favourites to take out the 2010 edition.

Top-seeded Australia face Spain (Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Tommy Robredo), Romania (Sorana Cirstea and Victor Hanescu) and USA (Melanie Oudin and John Isner) in their group stage.

Hewitt said both he and Stosur were confident of topping the group and winning the final.

“Sam’s extremely fit and strong at the moment and hitting the ball well and I think I’m in the same position, so fingers crossed we can do it,” Hewitt said.

“We’ve got a tough group but I think it’s a winnable group.

“With the girls in our group, I think Sam’s got a good chance of winning most of those matches, if not all of them, and putting us in a good position for me to go out there and have a good crack and try to finish it off in the singles.

“She’s won numerous grand slam doubles titles and I’ve won the US Open in doubles so if it came down to the doubles (to decide the tie) I’d still be feeling pretty confident.”

While Australia are expected to advance to the final, clinching the trophy will be no easy feat.

Potentially standing in the host nation’s way are Great Britain, boasting world No.4 Andy Murray and Australian-born 15-year-old Laura Robson, second-seeded Russia (World No.5 Elena Dementieva and Igor Andreev) and the strong German pairing of Sabine Lisicki and Philipp Kohlschreiber.

“Andy Murray is … such a quality player but he’s playing with a young girl, so how they actually fare in this competition is going to be up in the air,” Hewitt said.

“In my group, Tommy Robredo on paper is one of the tougher opponents.

“He never gives you anything easy.

“I’ve lost to him before at the French Open in five sets.”

Stosur said she would embrace the No.1 seeding afforded to Australia.

“There might be a little bit more pressure but that’s what you … play to be – as high a seed as you can,” Stosur said.

“We’ll be going into this tournament trying to live up to that expectation.”

Australia start their campaign against Romania on Saturday and Stosur was confident of a first-up win against Cirstea after defeating the world No.45 in their two previous meetings.

Hewitt, making his fifth appearance at the Hopman Cup, said the tournament was the perfect launching pad for what he hoped would be a successful tilt at the Australian Open.

“You are guaranteed at least three matches. It would be nice to get four this year (by reaching the final),” he said.

© AAP 2012

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