The United States has won their second Hopman Cup tie in Perth against the Czech Republic after Tomas Berdych retired ill during the mixed doubles match. Berdych, ranked 14, came down with a stomach virus last night and tournament officials decided to play the mixed doubles before his singles match against 39th-ranked American Mardy Fish.
But after the US stormed to a 6-0 lead in the first set of the doubles, with Berdych's usual power and strong serve completely absent, he announced he could no longer go on and the Czechs forfeited, giving the US a 3-0 win.
Earlier, superstar Serena Williams made a good start to her Australian summer campaign with a hard-fought 6-0 2-6 7-5 victory over Lucie Safarova in the women's singles. Williams came storming out of the blocks, her devastatingly powerful groundstrokes overpowering the 23rd ranked Safarova's and taking the opening set in 22 minutes without dropping a game.
But Safarova showed her mettle in the second set, breaking Williams' serve
in the second and seventh games with quick ground work and clever drop shots, to give herself a chance.With both players stepping up their games and the third set level 5-5, Williams, the defending Australian Open champion, then broke serve and went on to take the match in 112 minutes.
"It was definitely interesting. Lucie's a great player and I was a little off, obviously," Williams said. "She was just hitting a lot of winners on her forehand and her backhand, she was going for broke." Williams' year has been plagued by injury after the then ranked 81 singles player became only the second unseeded woman to win the Australian title in the Open era.
She said she welcomed the challenge to reach No. 1 again. "Of course I want to be No. 1, of course I want to win grand slams ... I wouldn't be out here if I didn't have those goals," she said. Williams arrived in Perth only yesterday for the mixed team event, after a stomach illness forced her to miss the tournament's opening tie between the US and India.
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