Perth WA, Australia, 1 December 2015 | hopmancup.com

Rising tennis star Daria Gavrilova will partner Nick Kyrgios for Australia Green at Hopman Cup 2016.

Gavrilova, the world No.36, completes an all-star field featuring world No.1 Serena Williams, world No.2 Andy Murray, world No.9 Lucie Safarova, French superstar Gael Monfils and Australia Gold’s Lleyton Hewitt and Casey Dellacqua.

“I’m very excited to be heading to Perth. It’s the first time I’m going to represent Australia in a team event,” 21-year-old Gavrilova said.

“I’m sure it’s going to be really fun. 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, it’s going to be great.

“I really like the diamond trophy, I have my eyes on it.”

The former world No.1 junior reached a career high of 35th in October and finished the year having risen more than 195 spots in the world rankings in 2015.

During that time she posted the biggest wins of her career, scoring three top-10 scalps in Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and Safarova.

In 2010 Gavrilova won the US Open girls’ singles title and is the ninth junior Grand Slam champion to join the Hopman Cup 2016 field.

When asked about teaming up with Gavrilova, Kyrgios said: “I think we’ll go well. I’ve known her [Daria] for a long, long time. We played juniors together.

“I know she’s a great competitor. She makes a lot of balls which is really good.”

Hopman Cup Tournament Director Paul Kilderry is delighted to add Gavrilova to January’s line-up.

“Daria and Nick are both going to be a big part of the future of Australian tennis and we welcome them both to Perth for the first time,” Kilderry said.

“Daria’s rise up the ranks in the last 12 months indicates her incredible talent and determination to be the best she can be on the tennis court.”

 

This year’s Hopman Cup field includes six Grand Slam champions across singles, doubles and mixed events, as well as five Grand Slam singles finalists.

Hopman Cup 2016 full field

*ranking as of 30 November denoted in brackets

 

Australia Green [30] Nick Kyrgios and [36] Daria Gavrilova
Australia Gold [115] Casey Dellacqua and [305] Lleyton Hewitt
Czech Republic [9] Lucie Safarova and [41] Jiri Vesely
France [24] Gael Monfils and [34] Caroline Garcia
Germany [32] Sabine Lisicki and [83] Alexander Zverev
Great Britain [2] Andy Murray and [55] Heather Watson
Ukraine [19] Elina Svitolina and [36] Alexandr Dolgopolov
USA [1] Serena Williams and [26] Jack Sock