Novak Djokovic kick-started his 2011 campaign with a well-earned victory yesterday as top seeds Serbia took an unbeatable 2-0 lead over Kazakhstan in their opening match at the Hopman Cup mixed team event.
The world No. 3 dropped the first set to the hard-hitting Andrey Golubev, but slowly wore down the 23-year-old to clinch a 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory.
Former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic had earlier put Serbia ahead with a 7-6, 6-1 win over Yaroslava Shvedova.
Djokovic looked like he was suffering from jet-lag in the early stages and Golubev, who began last year down at world No. 133, took advantage.
However, Djokovic, who last month helped his country win the Davis Cup for the first time, broke in the opening game of the second set and with his confidence restored he dropped just four more games.
Ivanovic, who climbed back up to 17th in the rankings after free-falling in the first half of last year, overcame some early- season nerves to see off Shvedova.
World No. 36 Shvedova was hitting either winners or making mistakes, but she still had her chances to take the first set, only for Ivanovic to pinch the tiebreak 8-6 and move ahead.
The former French Open -champion then lifted her game in the second set to cruise through to a morale-boosting victory.
“I think we were both really nervous and it was so hard to hold our serves at first,” Ivanovic said. “I started to serve a little bit better in the tiebreak and then in the second set.”
Djokovic and Ivanovic were to take on Golubev and Shvedova in the mixed doubles to decide the final result.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Andy Murray is following the same path for the Australian Open this year in the hope that he will match or go one better than last year’s appearance in the final.
Murray will team up with Laura Robson to represent Britain in the Hopman Cup, where the British pair reached the final last year, losing to Spain, and they will begin this year’s campaign against Italy today.
Britain’s match against Italy is the first of two scheduled for today — the US plays France in the second.
Australia, led by Lleyton Hewitt, beat Belgium 2-1 on Saturday in the tournament’s opening match that included singles wins by Hewitt and Justine Henin for Belgium.
Serbia, Belgium, Australia and Kazakhstan are playing in Group A at Perth, while the US, Britain, Italy and France make up Group B. The group winners play in the final next Saturday.
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