The Swiss team of Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic have taken victory in the 2019 Hopman Cup over German opponents Alexander Zverev and Angelique Kerber, though it came down to a double championship point.
Federer faced Zverev in singles to start the night, and took a comfortable victory against him 6-4, 6-2.
The 20-time grand slam champion barely had a problem in putting Zverev away, racing away during the second set with accurate serving.
Zverev got frustrated after the first set, lost concentration and simply never recovered.
However Bencic was unable to secure an early win for Switzerland in the second leg, falling to Kerber 4-6, 6-7 with the second set being decided by a thrilling tiebreaker.
The women’s singles looked like it was going to be a one-sided battle when Kerber raced away to lead 3-0.
However, Bencic hit back and turned the match into a thriller, with four breaks of serve answered across the match before she finally fell in the tiebreaker.
Federer and Bencic then raced out to an early lead in the doubles winning the first set 4-0, before a break by Zverev and Kerber in the second set saw them claim it 4-1.
Breaking the Federer serve came as a surprise, but the drama of the second set was nothing compared to the third.
The Swiss team took an early lead, but the Germans broke back at the last possible moment, again against the serve of Federer, to send the match to a thrilling tiebreaker.
They then split the first eight points of the tiebreaker 4-4 to leave the entire championship riding on a final deciding point – this was despite Federer serving the final three points and only needing to win two of them.
Germany got onto match point at 4-3 after a brilliant put away by Zverev, but couldn’t maintain the advantage.
It was a tense rally at the net to decide the match, but Federer and Bencic eventually cracked the Germans and won the championship in what is already being described as the best Hopman Cup final in history.
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