Great Britain and France were the final two teams to participate in this year’s Hopman Cup, and the British continued with their success story by backing their Davis Cup triumph in December with a hard-fought opening win.
Andy Murray, the central figure in that Davis Cup and expectedly the leader in this Hopman Cup campaign, got his jobe done as usual with relative ease against big serving Kenny De Schepper 6-2, 6-2. The Scot broke his opponent’s serve in the very first game and once again in the fifth game as he showed brilliant form in his first showing in 2016. The second set followed a similar pattern, with Murray breaking De Schepper in the opening game and racing away to a comfortable win.
“I played well. Everything was working pretty good. I was able to finish a lot of points up at the net. It’s quite a quick surface here so if you can get the first strike in the rallies it’s quite easy to sort of stay on top of the point. I enjoy it here and that’s why I keep coming back. I’ll be back next year as well”, said Murray after the win that put Great Britain 1-0 up.
Next up was a fascinating clash between youngters Heather Watson and Caroline Garcia. Despite being a set up and serving for the match, Garcia wasn’t able to close out the tie in straight-sets as Watson fought back to take it to a third, where the French player held on to keep France alive in the clash with a final score of 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.
The mixed doubles were just as tight and exciting and, once again, Murray flew the flag for Great Britain, with the brilliant aid of Heather Watson, to take the rubber 6-2, 5-7, 10-6, and consequently the tie.
Great Britain next face Australia Green on Wednesday which will include a mouth-watering encounter between good friends Andy Murray and Nick Kyrgios.
