The U.S. team of Mardy Fish and Serena Williams has beaten top-seeded Serbia to win the Hopman Cup mixed team tennis competition in Perth, Australia. It was the fifth time an American team has won the event in its 20-year history.
An upper right leg injury that has hindered Serbia's Jelena Jankovic the past few days gave Williams the opening singles match in a walkover.
Novak Djokovic of Serbia evened the best-of-three match final with a three-set win over American Mardy Fish (6-2, 6-7, 7-6). Jankovic did take the court for the deciding mixed doubles match, but the Americans rallied from a 4-1 deficit to win in straight sets, 7-6, 6-2.
For the win, Williams and Fish share $240,000 in prize money. Each player also receives two Argyle diamond encrusted tennis balls worth $35,000 each.
Because of her injury, Jankovic had pulled out of both her singles matches on the previous two days, and in both cases she came back to win the clinching mixed doubles match with Djokovic, against both France and Argentina.
The Hopman Cup is a key warm-up for the first major tournament of the year, the Australian Open, which starts January 14th in Melbourne.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP.
