Carlos Alcaraz, Wins The Hopman Cup, Croatia Defeats Spain To Get To The Final Versus Switzerland
On Sunday, the 1996 competition champions Croatia will try to claim a second championship. In their Hopman Cup mixed doubles match on Saturday, Croatia’s Borna Coric and Donna Vekic prevailed against Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and Rebeka Masarova 1-6 6-4 (14-12) to win 2-1 and advance to the match against Switzerland. With a 6-3 6-7(6) (10-5) victory over Coric, world number one Alcaraz earlier leveled the contest at 1-1. Days after winning Wimbledon on the All England Club grounds, Alcaraz has now won two straight singles matches.
Having clearly shaken off the rust from his performance in the victory over Belgian David Goffin the day before, the 20-year-old sped throughout the first set in 36 minutes, but Coric fought to get back into the match by winning a close second set tiebreak. Alcaraz picked up the pace in the super tiebreak to secure the victory in just over two hours and set up the decisive match, where Croatia maintained composure in a thrilling contest to complete a remarkable comeback victory.
On Sunday, the 1996 competition champions Croatia will try to claim a second championship.
Masarova was unable to overcome Vekic in the opening set of the tie, as the world number 22 won 6-2, 6-1 by converting four of her seven breakpoint opportunities. This virtually eliminated Spain’s prospects of competing for the title.
Roger Federer led Switzerland to victory over Germany in the championship match as they successfully defended their title in the final of the mixed team competition in 2019. This was Switzerland’s fourth overall crown. This week, the resurrected competition made its four-year absence from the tennis calendar up, having lost its place in front of the Australian Open due to the temporary ATP Cup men’s team event.
