{"id":13303,"date":"2018-08-15T16:21:36","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T08:21:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=13303"},"modified":"2018-09-04T14:32:21","modified_gmt":"2018-09-04T06:32:21","slug":"stars-keep-rolling-in-for-mastercard-hopman-cup-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2018\/08\/15\/stars-keep-rolling-in-for-mastercard-hopman-cup-2019","title":{"rendered":"Stars keep rolling in for Mastercard Hopman Cup 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two-time Grand Slam champion and world No.9 Garbine Muguruza and former world No.3 David Ferrer will make their Mastercard Hopman Cup debut for Spain in 2019.<\/p>\n

Also heading to Western Australia are Greek rising stars, the new world No.15 Stefanos Tsitsipas and world No.31 Maria Sakkari.<\/p>\n

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The two teams join world No.2 Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic for Switzerland and world No.4 Alexander Zverev and Wimbledon champion and world No.4 Angelique Kerber of Germany who are already confirmed.<\/p>\n

Muguruza and Ferrer will be looking to win Spain\u2019s fifth Hopman Cup title after Fernando Verdasco and Anabel Medina Garrigues most recently won the title in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to Perth and to play there. I\u2019ve heard so many things about Hopman Cup chatting about it to other Spanish people that went and they say it\u2019s magic,\u201d Muguruza said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to play with David and yes I\u2019ve seen it on TV and it looks very fun and competitive at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something about the Australian vibe that makes us want to be there and makes us happy. The crowd is so involved with us, that we love to play there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spanish veteran Ferrer will make his first trip to Perth after travelling to the Australian Open for the past 15 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never had the chance to play in the Hopman Cup, but all the people say to me that it\u2019s an amazing competition,\u201d Ferrer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very good, very good preparation for Australia. And you know I like playing in a competition with teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a really good team. Garbine is one of the best players of the world. I\u2019ve never played with Garbine. It\u2019s going to be all new for me in Perth.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The charismatic and talented duo of Tsitsipas and Sakkari are the first Greek team to play the event for 17 years.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Twenty-year-old Tsitsipas burst onto the men\u2019s tour only 10 months ago when he won his first tour-level main draw match.<\/p>\n

Since then he has made the Barcelona final and semifinals in Washington before upstaging four of the world\u2019s top 10 players, [8] Dominic Thiem, [10] Novak Djokovic, [4] Zverev and [6] Kevin Anderson to reach his first ATP Masters 1000 final at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, last weekend.<\/p>\n

The young superstar is thrilled to represent Greece with his friend and compatriot Sakkari.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m super excited to be playing in Perth and, together with Maria, being the first Greek team playing in Perth for many years,\u201d Tsitsipas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t wait to have all the support from the crowd, from the Greek people that live in Perth and for such a fantastic event like the Hopman Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying in front of such an amazing crowd in such a nice city like Perth, it\u2019s like a dream come true for me. I\u2019ve worked so hard for it and being part of this event is so important for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutting Greece on the map of tennis is super important as well, inspiring kids. We are the two players that can change tennis in Greece and, you know, bring it to another level, to a completely new level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sakkari is also marking her mark on the women\u2019s tour. The 23-year-old made the third round of three Grand Slams in 2017, propelling her into the women\u2019s top 50 at the end of last year, and made her first WTA Premier final just two weeks ago in San Jose.<\/p>\n

Sakkari is rapt to be heading to Perth to represent Greece.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of the best events during the year. All of them are having fun. Its great matches, great atmosphere, great place, great arena, great hotel. I mean everything is unbelievable. So I\u2019m looking forward for everything,\u201d Sakkari said.<\/p>\n

\u201cStefanos is so talented and he\u2019s an unbelievable player. I think we\u2019re going to have a lot of fun playing together because we know each other since we were very young.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Greece we\u2019re very patriotic and, especially me, I mean I love representing Greece whenever I have the chance. It\u2019s a great chance to play now for Greece at the Hopman Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mastercard Hopman Cup Tournament Director Paul Kilderry added, \u201cWe are pleased to welcome two of Spain\u2019s most decorated players in Garbine Muguruza and David Ferrer for the first time to Perth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also look forward to welcoming Stefanos (Tsitsipas) and Maria (Sakkari) from Greece, two future stars who love playing for their country. We know the people of Perth will enjoy watching these two compete.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur field is strong with four top 10 players heading to Western Australia in 2019 and half the field yet to be announced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mastercard Hopman Cup 2019<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Switzerland<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 [2] Roger Federer and [45] Belinda Bencic<\/p>\n

Germany<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 [4] Alexander Zverev and [4] Angelique Kerber<\/p>\n

Spain<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 [79] David Ferrer and [9] Garbine Muguruza<\/p>\n

Greece<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 [15] Stefanos Tsitsipas and [31] Maria Sakkari<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two-time Grand Slam champion and world No.9 Garbine Muguruza and former world No.3 David Ferrer will make their Mastercard Hopman Cup debut for Spain in 2019. Also heading to Western Australia are Greek rising stars, the new world No.15 Stefanos Tsitsipas and world No.31 Maria Sakkari. View image on Twitter The two teams join world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5812,"featured_media":13305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5812"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}