Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues and Fernando Verdasco have prevailed in Session 2 of Hyundai Hopman Cup XXIV over an Australian team of Jarmila Gajdosova and Lleyton Hewitt in front of 7393 fans inside Perth’s Burswood Dome Sunday night.
The Session started with Gajdosova beating Medina Garrigues 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 and then Verdasco levelled things to force a deciding mixed doubles beating Hewitt 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 and then in the mixed doubles, Spain won 3-6, 6-3, 11/9 (Match Tie-break).
Medina Garrigues was delighted after the mixed doubles win to take part in the win for Spain in her second visit to Perth after making the 2007 Final alongside Tommy Robredo.
“We play two hours my singles, two hours his singles and then the mixed doubles and it was so, so tough,” Medina Garrigues said.
“Fernando made a big shot and I think that was ball of the match. We are very happy, so sorry for the crowd for the country but we are happy because we can win.”
Verdasco had an outstanding, but taxing, night with his three-set win over Hewitt and then another tight doubles affair, but he enjoyed his first outing in the Burswood Dome and is now looking forward to checking out the sights of Perth.
“I play only two times, one with Anabel and another one with another player and I lost both so it’s the first time I play in hardcourt and I won so I might play more in hardcourt in mixed doubles and no more on grass,” Verdasco said.
“Of course playing against Lleyton here I know almost everybody is with him, but I’m happy to be back in Australia. This is a very special place for me after the semi finals in 2009 and I’m happy to be here in Perth for the first time.
“I’m happy to win and also win a mixed doubles for the first time in my life, so it’s pretty special and tomorrow in the morning I will practice. I cannot take the day off but I will practice early in the morning and then we will go to the beach to celebrate.”
Hewitt might not have been on the winning side in the end, but was happy with his performance against a talented player in Verdasco and then to get through not only that, but the mixed doubles as well.
“I feel pretty good at the moment, obviously we have a day off tomorrow which is nice, to just get my body right and we play on Tuesday night again against France so we’re looking forward to that,” Hewitt said.
“It’s not an easy game to play and you know obviously we played extremely well in the first set and went down and fought our way back in the second set and the tie breaker was up and down like a roller coaster so we were a bit unlucky, we had match point and Fernando hit a big serve.”
The Session was the second of Hyundai Hopman Cup XXIV following Saturday’s Tie that saw the French team of Marion Bartoli and Richard Gasquet beat China’s Li Na and Wu Di two rubbers to one.
Group B action begins on Monday with the morning Session seeing the No. 1 seeds from the Czech Republic Petra Kvitova and Tomas Berdych play the Bulgarian team of Tsvetana Pironkova and Grigor Dimitrov.
Then Monday evening’s Session sees world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki and her Denmark teammate Frederik Nielsen face American duo, and past winners, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Mardy Fish.
By Rosita Stangl
