{"id":10962,"date":"2018-12-27T16:15:40","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T21:15:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=10962"},"modified":"2018-12-27T16:12:57","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T21:12:57","slug":"ashleigh-barty-and-matt-ebden-seek-to-use-home-advantage-to-upset-hopman-cup-favourites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2018\/12\/27\/ashleigh-barty-and-matt-ebden-seek-to-use-home-advantage-to-upset-hopman-cup-favourites\/","title":{"rendered":"Hopman Cup 2019 \u2013 Britain Open against Greece and Federer\/Bencic Eager to Retain Title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Defending champions Switzerland field an unchanged pairing: Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic.<\/p>\n<p>The RAC Arena in Perth has attracted eight strong mixed pairings for the 2019 event. Federer and Bencic seem serious in their mission to retain their title in what will probably be the final year of this format.<\/p>\n<h3>End of the Hopman Cup Era<\/h3>\n<p>The event will likely be taken over by the 2020 ATP World Team Cup. There will be fierce competition between some strong rivals, including Roger Federer, Alexander Zverev, Serena Williams, and Angelique Kerber. New Year\u2019s Day sees Roger Federer &amp; Serena Williams on opposite sides of the net in the mixed doubles. They will be partnered by Belinda Bencic and the raw talent of Francis Tiafoe, respectively.<\/p>\n<h3>Great Britain takes on Greece in the Opening Match<\/h3>\n<p>World #100 Katie Boulter teams up with the promising 23-year-old lefty, Cameron Norrie, to carry Britain\u2019s hopes. Boulter will be keen to impress representing Britain, given the fact that the Federation Cup is being co-hosted in Bath, UK in February 2019. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/2018\/12\/03\/heather-watson-and-her-season-to-move-on-from\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Boulter is currently British number 3, and Heather Watson knows that chasing down the world #93<\/a> will give her every chance of teaming up with Konta in the singles. She will be keen to hit her stride in the new season by impressing against some top players.<\/p>\n<p>The Greece pairing of Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari are definite dark horses in this year\u2019s event. They will be focused \u2013 given the fact that Greece play the Hopman Cup for the 1st time since 2002. Katie Boulter leads the head-to-head 1-0 against Sakkari. This is courtesy of a victory in Tianjin last season. NextGen Finals champ Tsitsipas will fancy his chances against Norrie, who is 2-6 in his last four tournaments. It could all come down to the mixed doubles match. Boulter\u2019s only mixed doubles match last season resulted in a first round Wimbledon loss. Her partner then was Luke Bambridge.<\/p>\n<h3>Maria Sakkari and Tsitsipas Could Well Excel in the Mixed Doubles<\/h3>\n<p>Sakkari has shared with YouTube viewers, the fact that Tsitsipas would be her ideal mixed doubles player. It could all come down to mixed doubles and the on-court chemistry needed to succeed in this sphere. USA and Switzerland complement the group (B). It\u2019s likely that the losing country in the opening match, can consider themselves out of it.<\/p>\n<h3>Germany\u2019s Zverev &amp; Kerber can Consider Themselves Favourites for Group A<\/h3>\n<p>Dark horse host country combination Ashleigh Barty and Matt Ebden can count on the extra player that is home support. They will need this when facing Germany (Alexander Zverev\/Angelique Kerber) &#8211; many people\u2019s favourites for the Hopman Cup. French<br \/>\npairing of Lucas Pouille and Alice Cornet have a bit to find on the form book. In order to trouble them, David Ferrer and Garbine Muguruza of Spain need to find form quickly.<\/p>\n<h3>Fans will be Excited at Prospect of a Switzerland v Germany Final<\/h3>\n<p>Roger Federer could have a shot at revenge over his <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2018\/11\/17\/alexander-zverev-stuns-roger-federer-to-reach-the-final-of-the-nitto-atp-finals\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">ATP Tour Finals semifinal defeat to Alexander Zverev<\/a>. This would happen only in the final, as Switzerland and Germany can only meet then. It would also give Kerber the chance to eat into the 1-4 head-to-head deficit held over her by Belinda Bencic. This is far from certain though. Don\u2019t discount USA, Greece or admittedly, less likely, Britain from upsetting the applecart along the way.<\/p>\n<p>Both of the Germany and Switzerland pairing have mixed doubles experience together, from last year\u2019s Hopman Cup. This is a definite advantage.<\/p>\n<p>The Hopman Cup runs from December 29th, 2018 until January 5th, 2019.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"c9KuA3R1QYxWYWR_1lRTng\" class=\"gie-single\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/903020268\" target=\"_blank\" style=\"color:#a7a7a7;text-decoration:none;font-weight:normal !important;border:none;display:inline-block;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'c9KuA3R1QYxWYWR_1lRTng',sig:'l5G-5s_g8IdEoSQMq6rByY0Cj0xWCQ_LoEJNUN9lNbs=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'903020268',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Defending champions Switzerland field an unchanged pairing: Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic. The RAC Arena in Perth has attracted eight strong mixed pairings for the 2019 event. Federer and Bencic seem serious in their mission to retain their title in what will probably be the final year of this format. End of the Hopman Cup [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2169,"featured_media":10988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[85,470,24,18,266,1688,4063,184,2892,200,2679,12,4062,435,60,1225,134,479,4065,114,25,361,478,4064,328,15],"class_list":["post-10962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-atp","category-wta","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-alize-cornet","tag-angelique-kerber","tag-atp","tag-belinda-bencic","tag-cameron-norrie","tag-david-ferer","tag-france","tag-francis-tiafoe","tag-garbine-muguruza","tag-germany","tag-great-britain","tag-greece","tag-hopman-cup","tag-johanna-konta","tag-katie-boulter","tag-lucas-pouille","tag-perth","tag-rac-arena","tag-roger-federer","tag-serena-williams","tag-spain","tag-switzerland","tag-tianjin","tag-usa","tag-wta"],"modified_by":"Yesh Ginsburg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10988"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}