The Aussie summer of tennis is set to kick-off with a bang on Saturday as Perth hosts the 25th Hopman Cup.
The invitational teams’ event will this year be contested by a star-studded line-up, headlined by world number one Novak Djokovic.
The field this year also contains other Grand Slam winners Venus Williams, Francesca Schiavone and Ana Ivanovic, who partners Djokovic to form the top ranking Serbian team.
Williams is also partnered by previous winner John Isner, while crowd favourites Tommy Haas, Andrea Petkovic, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Fernando Verdasco will all be present.
We can expect some entertaining matches in both groups with the US, Spain, France and South Africa making up one group, although most of the focus will be on the other group containing the powerhouse Serbia, Germany and Italy. But the biggest challenge will be for the last team in this group, the bottom-ranked Australians.
For the first time since 2008, Australia will not be represented by Lleyton Hewitt but rather two debutants and the youngest team we have had for many years. With a combined age of just 36, 20-year-old Bernard Tomic and 16-year-old Ash Barty will be flying to flag for Australia this year.
Barty was the third choice this year after Casey Dellacqua and Jarmila Gajdosova both withdrew and it will be a great way to start the year for Ash, who looks to continue last year’s form which saw her climb 400 ranking places and debut in all four Grand Slam main draws.
While Barty will be relatively unknown to the big names in the draw, Tomic will be a familiar face after breaking the top 30 earlier in the year thanks to an impressive start in Brisbane and Melbourne. Tomic will be looking to recapture this form after a form slump causing him to drop out of the top 50.
Another interesting point is the rankings for the up-coming Hopman Cup. There are no surprises with the top teams with Serbia (1), US (2), Italy (3) and Spain (4) holding the top spots, but there is a surprise with the seventh ranked team, France.
The French team this year consists of Hopman Cup debutants, similar to Australia, however there is a significant ranking difference with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga ranked almost 50 spots higher than Tomic and only seven spots below Djokovic, making him the second highest ranked player at this year’s cup.
I think this could lead to some interesting battles in the second group this year, but I still think that experience will be too much in this format and I see the US team finishing on top of the group.
In the other group, as much as I would love to see the young Australians cause some upsets, I think experience again will prevail and the Serbians will meet the US in an all-star final.
I think this round robin format will be a good way for Barty and Tomic to start the year though as they will both get tennis against quality opponents without the added pressure of the knockout format.
I was surprised to also read that Tomic will head from Perth to Sydney to contest the APIA Sydney International rather than returning to try and defend his title at the AAMI Kooyong Classic.
It does look like a promising start to the year for Australian tennis, with three players in the main draw in Sydney, Jarmila Gajdosova gaining a wildcard for the Moorilla Hobart International and Olivia Rogowska and youngster Ben Mitchell both given wildcards for the Brisbane International, joining Lleyton Hewitt and Matt Ebden.
While Australian tennis may not be as strong as it once was, it looks like there is a bright future ahead with Barty, Mitchell, Tomic, Rogowska and Nick Kyrgios all making waves on the international scene.
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