Hyundai Hopman Cup Mixed Doubles Tennis Underway Down Under

The Hyundai Hopman Cup for mixed doubles have started play for the 2010 tennis season down under in Australia at the Burswood Dome in Perth. This is the 22nd year of the tournament named after Harry Hopman.

Hopman was one of Australia's tennis legend player and coach. He is known for coaching many of the great tennis stars and the Australian Davis Cup teams for years.

Hopman loved mixed doubles tennis and after his death in 1985, several tennis players started the effort to honor Hopman and the first Hopman Cup was played in at the end of 1988 and New Years Day 1989.

Most known for his coaching, Hopman was an incredible tennis player in his time. In his career as a player, Hopman won seven Grand Slam titles in both doubles and mixed doubles. Several of the mixed doubles titles were with his first wife Nell.

Hyundai continues to sponsor the Hopman Cup. They are committed to sponsor the tournament through 2013.

This year's Hyundai Hopman Cup started on January 2nd and goes through Saturday January 9th. There are eight teams from eight countries playing in the eight day tournament.

The teams are divided up into two groups; A and B. Each team will play the other teams in their group. The women on each team will play a singles match and the men the same. Then the pairs will play a mixed doubles match to complete the Tie.

The matches will be played as the best of three sets. A Match Tie-break will be used if necessary for the doubles match.

After the group play is completed, the leading team from each group will advance to the Final round. The Hyundai Hopman Cup champion will be determined on January 9th.

The teams participating in this year's Hopman Cup are:
Group A
#1 seed Australia - Samantha Stosur & Lleyton Hewitt
#4 seed Spain - Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez & Tommy Robredo
#6 seed Romania - Sorana Cirstea & Victor Hanescu
#7 seed USA - Melanie Oudin & John Isner

Group B
#2 seed Russia - Elena Dementieva & Igor Andreev
#3 seed Great Britain - Laura Robson & Andy Murray
#5 seed Germany - Sabine Lisicki & Philipp Kohlschreiber
#8 seed Kazakhstan - Yaroslava Shvedova & Andrey Golubev

The Hyundai Hopman Cup provides many of tennis stars a chance to prepare for the start of the Grand Slam season. The Grad Slam season starts with the Australian Open later this month. It provides tennis fans down under the opportunity to watch some incredible tennis matches.

Written by Denise Clay
For Huliq

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