At the Hopman Cup opening match, the combination of Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic swept Kazakhstan 3-0 last Sunday.
Before Djokovic faced Andrey Golubev, it was Ivanovic that went against Yaroslava Shvedova in a 7-6(6), 6-1 match first. When it came to Djokovic playing against Golubev, the match came out in Djokovic’s favor via a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 match. Afterwards, the two Serbs put their talents together and swept off the competition via mixed doubles resulting in a 7-6(2), 6-4 victory.
According to Djokovic, “I was having a lot of fun… You don’t get many events throughout the year where you can really have fun and enjoy tennis. This is the event where I could just bring some laughs and a couple of jokes here and there during the match. Hopefully people like it.”
As for the women, both of the female tennis players struggled at first throughout the first set. However, Ivanovic soon took control of the game mainly in part of her strength in baseline play. Ivanovic was able to pull through despite the humid and hot environment that enveloped Burswood Dome.
Ivanovic said, “I think we were both really nervous and it was so hard to hold our serves… I started to serve a little bit better in the tiebreaker and then in the second set. I am working on it still. It’s been good the last few months. It’s also the first match for a while but it’s good to have the pressure of playing matches again.”
