Serbia breeze into Hopman final
Top seeded Serbians Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic have qualified for tomorrow’s Hopman Cup final against Spain after beating Germany 3-0 in a qualifying tie at Perth Arena.
World No.1 Novak Djokovic outclassed Tommy Haas 6-2 6-0 in the men’s singles before Ivanovic sealed the tie victory with a 6-0 6-1 win against Tatjana Malek.
The Serbs made it a clean sweep when Haas pulled out of the tournament with a toe injury, the fourth player to do so after the early exits of German Andrea Petkovic (knee), American John Isner (knee) and Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (hamstring).
Djokovic bounced back after losing his previous match 6-4 6-4 against Australia’s Bernard Tomic at the $1 million mixed teams event on Wednesday night.
It was almost as if Djokovic was smarting from that surprise result, exacting revenge in a clinical display against Haas in just 62 minutes. The colourful Serb, who won more than $12 million in prize-money alone in 2012, didn’t look back after breaking Haas’ service in the second and fourth games of the match.
Haas managed a single break back but Djokvoic closed out the first set before racing through the second in nonchalant fashion.
Ivanovic started in ruthless fashion against Malek, who answered an SOS from tournament organisers to replace injured German star Andrea Petkovic.
The glamorous Serb broke Malek’s serve in the second, fourth and sixth games of the opening set to set up her win.
Spain reached the final after beating USA 3-0 on a forfeit, the Spanish pair of Fernando Verdasco and Anabel Medina Garrigues advancing after big-serving American John Isner pulled out of the tournament with a knee injury.
