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| December 29, 2001 | Saturday | Shawwal 13, 1422 |
American pair favourites
PERTH, Dec 28: Americans Monica Seles and Jan-Michael Gambill are favorites to win the million dollar (500,000 US) Hopman Cup tennis mixed teams’ tournament starting at Burswood Dome here this weekend.
The main draw of the 14-year-old event gets under way Sunday after Italy’s Davide Sanguinetti and Francesca Schiavone clash with Greek pair Vasilis Mazarakis and Eleni Danilidou Saturday in a knockout encounter to decide the eighth team in the competition.
Seles — with nine grand slams under her belt — and Gambill are top seeds, with Australia seeded second, despite the presence of world No 1 Lleyton Hewitt in the home country’s line-up.
Hewitt will be partnered by relatively unknown 20-year-old Alicia Molik, ranked 47th in the world.
The in-form Seles, winner of her last three tournaments, and Gambill have their sights on the top prize of 240,000 dollars (120,000 US) after being beaten in last year’s final by Swiss pair Martina Hingis and Roger Federer.
Seles, 27, currently ranked eighth, has the chance to become the first player to win this tournament twice.
She and Goran Prpic clinched top honors for her native Yugoslavia in the 1990-91 event.
Gambill, 24, ranked 21st, is making his third appearance at the tournament.
The Americans have their first workout Monday when they come up against the unseeded French pair, Arnaud Clement and Virginie Razzano.
Clement, 24, is ranked 18th, while his 18-year-old partner is 72nd. She made the quarter finals of this year’s Australian and French Open titles and was also a beaten quarter finalist at Los Angeles.
Australia launch their campaign Sunday when they take on Switzerland’s unseeded pair, Federer and Miroslava Vavrinec.
Twenty-year-old Federer, ranked 13th, promises to give Hewitt a keen contest in the men’s singles, while the 116th ranked Vavrinec, 23, should be no walkover for Molik.
Hewitt, the US Open champion, earned his No 1 ranking at the Tennis Masters’ Cup in Sydney last month, and will view the eight-day Cup tournament as an ideal opportunity to tune up for next month’s Australian Open in Melbourne.
The other two seeded nations are Spain (third), represented by 30-year-old veteran Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and 19-year-old Tommy Robredo, and Belgium (fourth), featuring Kim Clijsters — Hewitt’s long-time girlfirend — and Xavier Malisse.
Sanchez Vicario, a former world No 1 and winner of four singles and 10 doubles grand slams, teamed with her brother, Emilio, to win this tournament in 1989-90. She is currently ranked 18th.
Robredo, 19, regarded as one of the most exciting players on the men’s tour, is ranked 30th.
Clijsters, 18, became the first Belgian — male or female — to reach a grand slam final when she made the last two in the French Open this year. She is ranked No 5.
Malisse, 21, is ranked 35th.
The seven teams assured of starts in the main draw are:
Group A:
United States (Monica Seles, Jan-Michael Gambill), Belgium (Kim Clijsters, Xavier Malisse), France (Virginie Razzano, Arnaud Clement).
Group B:
Australia (Alicia Molik, Lleyton Hewitt), Spain (Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Tommy Robredo), Argentina (Paolo Suarez, Mariano Zabaleta), Switzerland (Miroslava Vavrinec, Roger Federer).
Teams playing off for place in main draw:
Italy (Francesco Schiavone, Davide Sanguinetti), Greece (Eleni Danilidou, Vasilis Mazarakis).—AFP
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