Hopman Cup

Let’s start with an exo, only because I caught the tail-end of this.  This is like a mini-Davis Cup.  One man.  One woman.  Two singles.  One mixed doubles.  The finalists, this year, were Spain and Serbia.  Of course, with Novak Djokovic, Serbia won the men’s singles.  Anabel Medina Garrigues then won a touch match against Ana Ivanovic.  The two won the doubles as well having a lot more doubles experience.

The finalists speeches were worth the cost of admission.  Clearly, Medina Garrigues was thrilled beyond words to win the Hopman Cup.  She had started the week with back issues and wasn’t sure she would compete.  Verdasco joked that she won all the mixed and he hardly won anything so what was he doing there, and thanked her.  The prize was a silver ball, and he gave her his ball commenting “She may have my ball, but I have the money”, holding up the check they earned.

Ana and Novak were clearly amused, and enjoyed the ceremony.  Lucy Hopman, wife of the late Harry Hopman, was in a wheelchair.  She greeted the crowd, and said that while it was a long trip for her (and many others), that it’s never a long trip when it’s with friends.  The audience cheered her.

Chennai

This was a dream tournament for little known Spaniard, Roberto Bautista-Agut, who, at age 24, made it to an ATP final beating Berdych and Benoit Paire en route.  He was taking on Janko Tipsarevic, and even took a set off of him before the more experienced player took sets 2 and 3.  Score: 36 61 63.  Congrats to Tipsarevic on the win.

Doha

Doha is one of Nikolay Davydenko’s favorite tournament and he’s won it several times.  Davydenko had not won a tournament in almost 2 years as his ranking and confidence plummeted.  However, he had a very solid tournament and upset David Ferrer to reach the finals.  He might have won the tournament had he not gotten injured in the second set tiebreak.  After losing the tiebreak, Davydenko was broken twice as Gasquet took the third set for Gasquet’s ninth overall title.  Score: 36 76 63.

Brisbane

The only top seed that actually won, Andy Murray, took on the up and coming Grigor Dimitrov.  Dimitrov is having his best tournament ever.  He has a newfound big serve and is coming on his own in his first tournament final.  Nonetheless, Murray showed why he is world number 3, and took the title, 76 64 despite falling an early break.