Doubles joy for Boulter in Hopman Cup debut
KATIE Boulter and Cameron Norrie claimed two match victories in their Hopman Cup debut but missed out on a place in the final finishing second in their group behind Switzerland.
They duo started their Hopman Cup campaign with a 2-1 victory over Greece.
Norrie upset the highly fancied world No.15 Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6 6-4, before the 99th-ranked Boulter pushed Sakkari to three sets before losing 0-6 6-4 2-6 and the tie was seized in the thrilling mixed doubles.
In the Hopman Cup’s short sets format, the tiebreaks are a first-to-five contest. If the tiebreak is level at 4-4, the next point wins. But Great Britain prevailed 4-3 3-4 4-3 in the deciding mixed doubles, prevailing on the winner-takes-all point in the third-set tiebreak.
In their tie with Switzerland, Roger Federer defeated Cameron Norrie 6-1 6-1 in less than an hour and Belinda Bencic beat Boulter 6-2 7-6 before the Swiss duo made it a clean sweep with a 4-3 4-1 victory in the mixed doubles.
Against the USA on Wednesday, Boulter and Norrie ended on a high with the Brits defeating Serena Williams and Frances Tiafoe in the mixed doubles.
Combined with Norrie’s earlier win over Frances Tiafoe in the men’s singles rubber, Great Britain emerged a 2-1 winner over their highly fancied USA opponents, fighting back to win 3-4 4-3 4-1.
Boulter faced Serena Williams for the first time and although she lost 1-6 6-7 she took positives from the experience.
“She’s a champion so to actually share the court with her is such a privilege.”