Everyone knows Federer's Laver Cup, and swiss legends have won the Davis Cup with Wawrinka, so do fans know which is the first team championship of his career?
In 2001, Swiss Express partner Singis teamed up to win the Hopman Cup. Although this is an exhibition team event, it still attracts many top players to participate. It is precisely because of the addition of big stars such as Graf, Cyrres, Singis, McEnroe, Davenport, Wieland, Ivanisevich and other tennis stars that the influence of the Hopman Cup has been expanding, and in 1996 the Hopman Cup was officially recognized by the International Tennis Federation as the official World Mixed Team Competition.
The tournament first confirms the seeded teams, and the order of the matches begins with the women's singles matches, followed by the men's singles matches, and finally the mixed doubles matches. All matches were played in a best-of-three format, divided into two groups with eight teams, and after three group round-robin matches, the first place in the two groups qualified for the final title. There is no doubt that the mixed doubles of the decider is the biggest highlight.
If you take badminton analogies, the Thomas Cup is like the Davis Cup, the Billy Jane Gold Cup is like the Uber Cup, and the Hopman Cup is like the Sudirman Cup. Of course, the Hopman Cup, which has a strong sense of the exhibition game, is largely played as a warm-up match of the Australian Open, and the intensity of the game is not large, so why not enjoy it?
Looking at the world, the unique status of the Hopman Cup need not be repeated, and it will return on clay in Nice, France in 2023, and this event will leave Perth, Australia.
Reportedly run by shareholders Gasquet and Grosjean's Tennium, with a budget of £5 million, they will partner with the Nice Lawn Tennis Club to hold it for at least 5 years from 2023.
Maybe we remember the final of the Hopman Cup last year, Federer/Bencic beat Zverev/Kerber to win the championship, and this year there is an interesting thing that Zverev wanted to do 3 at the Olympic Games, and also publicly shouted on social platforms to urge his predecessor Kerber to improve the ranking. In the end, Kerber withdrew from the Olympic Games, Zverev was out of the men's doubles, singles semi-final sniper world first, the final swept Khachanov to accept the gold medal, perhaps not playing mixed doubles also reduced his physical consumption.
In the 2019 Hopman Cup competition, we also saw a very attractive game, that is, the two legendary veterans of Serena Williams and Federer were facing each other in the net, and a classic group photo was born.
So if the Hopman Cup returns the year after, what kind of lineup can be expected?
As we take a closer look at the two ranking lists of the ATP and WTA, we will notice that there are 3 countries with top 10 male and female players at the end of the year, and I believe you will soon be able to guess that one is Spain, one is Poland, and the other is Greece.
Muguruza (Badosa)/Nadal
Muguruza had proudly affirmed that this season was her best season to date, and although she had not won a Grand Slam title, she had won the cup three times in the five-time finals, especially piecing together her championship territory at all levels, especially the highest-level year-end finals, laughing and saying that she had won a title that even Nadal had not won.
The third in the world once expressed his desire to partner with Nadal in mixed doubles, the Spanish king holds two gold medals in men's singles and men's doubles, if you have to collect them, you will lack a mixed doubles gold medal, but because of the foot injury, the trip to Tokyo, the king of clay, cannot be completed.
Bardoza won her maiden title in Belgrade this season before winning the indian wells final at Azarenka's save-time finish. Badosa sees Muguruza as a mirror and loves the aggressive play of the two-time Grand Slam champion. She remembers shaking hands with Nadal at the Barcelona Championship at the age of 13 and 14 and laughing and never washing her hands again. She also sees her compatriot Nadal as an inspirational icon, believing that the king of clay can impress people by playing tennis.
Sviatek/Hulkach
Last year, Sviatek did not lose the French Open in a set, paid tribute to idol Nadal with practical actions, and raised the Polish flag in Roland Garros, which is a model of star-chasing success.
Inspired by her, Hulkach also admitted that he was encouraged by the success of his compatriots, and then immediately beat Italian supernova Sina in the first Masters tournament of the year, Miami, to become the first Polish player in history to win the Masters singles title, and then won the title at Metz and Dre Beach, the most impressive battle was Wimbledon's clean sheet king Federer in the final four. Finally, he reached the final four at the Paris Masters and squeezed Out Sinar to catch the last train and lock the ticket to the year-end finals.
Sakkari/Tsitsipas
Both Greeks have competed in the year-end finals this season, but the results card is still more dazzling than Tsitsipas, the Monte Carlo Masters champion and the French Open runner-up. Sakkari, who was in the top ten for the first time, was stuck in the final four of the French Open and the US Open this season, losing to Cantavite to the runner-up of the Ostrava Open. Being the first Greek female tennis player to achieve this achievement gave her a greater sense of accomplishment.
"It's a big deal for myself, my family and my country, and Stefanos is in the top ten of the men's rankings, which is a good thing for Greece." The pair, who had played in the Mixed Doubles at the Olympics, stood up for Tsitsipas when they were caught in the whirlpool of public opinion due to the toilet storm.
Rublev and Pavlyuchenkova partnered in the Mixed Doubles at the Tokyo Olympics, and the two advanced by grabbing ten in almost every game, and even the final and compatriot Karatsev/Vesnina were also playing in the dark, and the competition for the championship point of mutual rescue was very fierce. Rublev also gave birth to very classic and funny memes.
In the mixed doubles match of this year's Olympic Games, we had the privilege of seeing the contest between the two world number ones, but later because Djokovic was out of the singles bronze medal battle, and ben was directly withdrawn from the doubles bronze medal battle after taking painkillers, we did not have the opportunity to see his wonderful duel with Barty/Pierce. Perhaps more people remember Djokovic and Ivanovic playing together in the Hopman Cup, and last year's Adria Tour World No. 1 also invited former world number One Jankovic out of the mountains to join forces for the exhibition stage.
Just as Muguruza won the year-end finals that Nadal could not win, Bencic, who was admired by the Swiss Express, also won the Olympic singles gold medal that Federer could not win, and the Swiss number one women's singles also won the Swiss Female Athlete of the Year award the day before yesterday. Will we still see the duo return in 2023?
There are also Deminarl and Barty, Kei Nishikori and Naomi Osaka, Beretini and Giorgi, Murray and Raducanu, Aliassim and Fernandes, Shapovalov and Andreescu, and are welcome to nominate other squads.
(Source: Tennis House Author: Linghe Xianying)