Great Britain earned a winning start to their Hopman Cup campaign with a 2-1 win over Greece.
The first match of the Hopman Cup saw Group B action as Great Britain took on Greece in the day session. The Brits were arguably the weakest team on paper at this year’s event with world number 91 Cameron Norrie and world number 97 Katie Boulter representing them.
It would be Norrie who kicked things off against world number 15 Stefanos Tsitsipas, who looked to continue his momentum from his breakthrough season in 2018.
The first set saw a tight and tense affair as both men were very aggressive and dictating play right from the start of the match. No break points were created throughout the set as Tsitsipas continued to work the angles against the hard-working Brit.
A tiebreak would have to settle the first set, which was equally as tight with neither player giving anything away. Eventually Norrie’s power and net skills were too much as the Brit took the tiebreak 10-8.
There was a lot of work for the Greek youngster to do in the second set and he made the perfect start by breaking in the first game. Keeping his composure in these red-hot conditions was a task though for Tsitsipas as he would lose his serve three times throughout the match.
After three breaks in a row for 3-3, the world number 15’s forehand was slowly deteriorating as the unforced errors began to increase. Another missed forehand sealed the break for Norrie in the tenth game for a very good 7-6(8) 6-4 win to put Great Britain 1-0 up.
The second match of the day saw Maria Sakkari defeat Katie Boulter in three sets to level the tie for Greece. The world number 41, who is being coached by Mark Petchey, won the first seven games.
Despite a good comeback from Boulter on her Hopman Cup debut to take the second set, the powerful Greek had too much for the Brit as she sealed a 6-0 4-6 6-2 win.
So the tie would be decided in the Fast4 mixed doubles match as Norrie and Boulter faced Tsitsipas and Sakkari. The match was tight from the start and was decided on very few margins.
However it was the British team who recovered from 2-0 down in the decider to claim victory 4-3(0), 3-4(2), 4-3(4). The victory will now give the Brits confidence as they take on defending champions Switzerland on Sunday evening in their second match.
As for Greece they will play USA in their next match on Monday morning, who have Frances Tiafoe and Serena Williams for this year’s edition.
