hopman cup

The Hopman Cup Tournament organisers have confirmed that Britain’s Andy Murray and Laura Robson will form the GB team that will challenge for the trophy in Perth, Australia ahead of the Australian Open.

Murray and Robson will become the first British players to enter the competition since 1992 when Jeremy Bates and Jo Durie represented Great Britain, they were sadly knocked out in the first round.

Other teams so far confirmed for the Hopman Cup are Spain, Russia and the United States, plus the host nation Australia who will have Lleyton Hewitt and Samantha Stosur as their team.

Each match of the tournament features one men’s singles, one women’s singles and a doubles.

Andy Murray is believed to be using the tournament to prepare himself for the Australian Open which takes place later in January. Murray has never fulfilled his potential at the Open and is hoping that by choosing to compete and doing well in Perth, will put him in a better position challenge for the big one.

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The 17 year old from Guernsey and based in Florida, fought back from 3-1 down in the first set to win four games on the trot and although broken back serving for the game, was able to make amends to win the first set 6-4.

Watson then showed her strengths in the second set, dropping just one point against Buchina and winning the match, 6-4, 6-1.

The unseeded Russian had reached the final by beating Britain’s number two Laura Robson in the last four.

Watson now intends to climb up the ranks of Ladies tennis, saying that she expects to play in more women’s tournaments than juniors in the coming months, she said after her triumph in the US Open;

“I still want to be able to play the junior Grand Slams next year because I really enjoy playing them but I’m going to start trying to climb the women’s ladder now. This has given me a lot of confidence and I hope I can take this and use it in my next couple of tournaments.”

laura robson

British Girls’ Laura Robson and Heather Watson moved into the quarter finals of the US Open girls’ singles following impressive matches on Thursday.

Unseeded fifteen year old Robson produced an impressive game to beat the 12th seed Tamaryn Hendler of Belgium in two sets 6-2, 6-1 in a match that lasted just over 70 minutes.

Robson said after the game;

“It was a lot harder than the score suggests because there were a lot of games that went to deuce and she had a couple of break point chances. So it wasn’t a routine match but I thought I played well.”

She will face wildcard entry American Lauren Davis in the quarter final. Meanwhile British number one Heather Watson faced a tougher challenge in her match with German Annika Beck, winning 6-4, 7-5.

Watson had made an incredible start to the match leading the first set 5-0, but the German fought back to 5-4 as Watson’s game threatened to collapse.  Similarly in the second set Watson held a commanding lead of 5-1 before letting the game slip from her control, managing to hang on for the win.

Watson will now face Wimbledon girls’ singles champion and second seed at Flushing Meadows, Noppawan Lertcheewakarn for a place in the semi finals.

So it is Cilic who goes through to the quarter finals where he will face Juan Martin Del Potro.

Meanwhile Kim Clijsters carried on her fantastic form by beating Li Na 6-2, 6-4 at Flushing Meadows to book a place in the semi finals. She will face either Serena Williams looking for retribution for dumping her sister out of the competition, or Italian Flavia Pennetta in the semi final match.

And finally Luara Robson has reached the third round of the girls tournament beating Lauren Embree of USA. Robson will face Tamaryn Hendler of Belgium or Yulia Putintseva of Russia.

Laura Robson

Robson struggled throughout the match, having called her trainer on court as early as the third game. But even with restricted movement around the court, the second seeded Robson put up a spirited fight throughout the contest eventually losing a close match 2-6, 6-4, 8-6.

The injury forced Robson to withdraw from her doubles match later today.