Williams and Blake confirmed for Hopman Cup

Williams and Blake confirmed for Hopman Cup

Serena Williams and James Blake confirmed that they will play for the US at the Hopman Cup in January 2009.

The US have been handed the top seeding while Russia will be the second-seeded team represented by Marat Safin and Dinara Safina.
Safin's participation is unknow as he indicated he may take a break from the game after his loss to Juan Monaco in Paris on Monday.

Paul McNamee, tournament director, said Safin's manager told him the star Russian would announce his intentions in the first week of November.

Igor Andreev could play for Russia if Safin pulls out.

"Of course any tournament would miss Marat if he can't make it. But I think having a top 20 player come in like Andreev - I wouldn't say there's any downside to the Russian team but there's only one Marat Safin, so I hope he doesn't retire because he's such a great character of the game." McNamee said.

France, represented by Alize Cornet and Gilles Simon, is seeded third followed by Australia, Casey Dellacqua and Lleyton Hewitt, Italy with Flavia Pennetta and Simone Bolelli, Germany with Sabine Lisicki and Nicolas Kiefer and Slovak Republic with Dominika Cibulkova and Dominik Hrbaty.

The eighth and final spot will be filled by the winner of the Asian Hopman Cup.


Information from SMH