Former junior world No.1 Daria Gavrilova will make her Hopman Cup debut alongside Nick Kyrgios in January.
The 21-year-old will join a strong field at the mixed event which will also feature Andy Murray and Serena Williams. The Russian-born player has won two ITF $50,000 events this year in her newly adopted home Australia. In May she reached her first semifinal on the WTA Tour at the Rome Open after qualifying for the main draw. She closes out 2015 with a current win-loss of 32-21, elevating her to 36th in the world. Looking ahead to kicking-off her 2016 season at the prestigious Hopman Cup, Gavrilova spoke of her excitement.
I’m sure it’s going to be really fun,” Gavrilova said.
“Nick is going to teach me a lot of his tricks I hope. I’ve known him for a long time, we’re pretty good friends.”
Gavrilova first rose to prominence following her impressive performance on the junior tour where she rose to world No.1 in 2010. During that year she won the US Open junior title as well as a gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games. After playing for Russia, she switched her nationality to Australia in 2014. Currently the 21-year-old is being coached by former Australian player Nicole Pratt.
Gavrilova and Kyrgios will be one of two Australian teams in the upcoming event. The other home team will consist of Lleyton Hewitt, who will be retiring at the Australian Open, and Casey Dellacqua. It is the first time in the tournament that there will be two Australian teams.
The 2016 tournament will start on January 3rd with 8 teams consisting of 7 nationalities taking part. The tournament will see the return of world No.1 Serena Williams, who hasn’t played on the tour since her loss in the semifinals of the US Open. The full list of teams is the following:-
Australia Green: Nick Kyrgios and Daria Gavrilova
Australia Gold: Casey Dellacqua and Lleyton Hewitt
Czech Republic: Lucie Safarova and Jiri Vesely
France: Gael Monfils and Caroline Garcia
Germany: Sabine Lisicki and Alexander Zverev
Great Britain: Andy Murray and Heather Watson
Ukraine: Elina Svitolina and Alexandr Dolgopolov
USA: Serena Williams and Jack Sock
