Hopman Cup


The Hopman Cup is an international eight-team indoor hardcourt tennis tournament which plays mixed-gender teams on a country-by-country basis. It was held in Perth, Western Australia, in early January each year from 1989 to 2019. It will be replaced on the calendar in 2020 by the ATP Cup, a new ATP event, but the International Tennis Federation has said it will return in 2021 and is currently searching for a new venue.
The championship is named in honour of Harry Hopman, an Australian tennis player and coach who guided the country to 15 Davis Cup titles between 1938 and 1969. Since the Hopman Cup was founded in 1989, it has been attended each year by Hopman's widow, his second wife Lucy, who has travelled to the tournament from her home in the United States.
The tournament is a sanctioned official event in the calendar of the International Tennis Federation but, while individual player results are tallied, they are not regarded as official ATP matches or included in the calculation of ATP or WTA rankings. The competition receives extensive television coverage in Australia and is an important lead-up tournament to the Australian Open each January as part of the Australian Open Series.
The winning team receives a silver cup perpetual trophy and through 2013 the winning team members were presented with distinctive individual trophies in the shape of a tennis ball designed and created by Brinkhaus Jewellers encrusted with diamonds from the Argyle diamond mine in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. In 2014 and 2015, the individual trophies were created in the shape of an intricate diamond encrusted tennis racket and ball, using just under an ounce of 18-carat white, yellow and rose gold and approximately half an ounce of pink argyle diamonds. These trophies are valued at $26,000.
Until 2012, the Hopman Cup was played at the Burswood Dome. From 2013 to 2019, it was played at the Perth Arena.

Format

Unlike other major international team tennis tournaments such as the Davis Cup and the Fed Cup, which are for men or women only, the Hopman Cup is a mixed competition in which male and female players are on combined teams and represent their countries. Players are invited to attend and national coaches are not involved in selecting teams.
Eight nations are selected annually to compete in the Hopman Cup. The "last" team may be decided by play-offs between several nations before competition begins. For the 2007 Hopman Cup however, this did not occur, due to the Asian Qualifying Tournament creating the eighth team. The official tournament website also has no qualifier listed in its schedule.
Each team consists of one male player and one female player. Each match-up between two teams at the championships consists of:
The eight competing teams are separated into two groups of four and face-off against each of the other three teams in their group in a round-robin format. These seedings ensure that each group has approximately similar strength. The top team in each group then meet in a final to decide the champions.
If a player is injured then a player of a lower ranking of that nation may be the substitute.

Management

Since 2014 the Hopman Cup tournament director has beens Paul Kilderry after the resignation of Steve Ayles. Previously, the former Australian tennis player Paul McNamee, who played a key role in the founding of the championships, was the tournament director.

History

Up to and including 2012, the venue was the Burswood Dome at the Burswood Entertainment Complex.
The 2005/06 Hopman Cup was the first elite-level tennis tournament in which the system was introduced allowing players to challenge point-ending line calls similar to that in clay court tournaments. The challenged calls are immediately reviewed on a large monitor using Hawk-Eye technology.
The 20th Hopman Cup, in 2008, was intended to be the last held at the Burswood Dome, however this was extended until 2012 when the new Perth Arena was due for completion.
In 2019 for the 31st edition of the tournament, a record crowd of 14,064 witnessed the 2019 Hopman Cup match between United States and Switzerland. This was also the highest attendance for a tennis match in Western Australian history.
Roger Federer is the most successful individual player in Hopman Cup history with 3 titles. He and Belinda Bencic became the first paring to successfully defend the title, having won it the previous year.

Telecasts

The Hopman Cup was originally broadcast by the Seven Network until 1994, then by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. From 2011, a five-year deal to broadcast the competition was signed by Network Ten, a deal which ended abruptly in November 2013. The Seven Network's 7mate channel subsequently picked up the telecasting rights. The Nine Network broadcast the tournament in 2019.

Records and statistics

Finals by year

Performance by team

Statistics by team

After 2019 edition
Note 1: Teams with index 2 include results only of lower placed team of every appearance in the tournament in instances where two teams from the same country entered the tournament, while team with no index includes results of higher placed team only.

Note 2: Considering there is an extremely high frequency of retirements due to various reasons w.o. wins/defeats are counted in all statistics.

Note 3: "Y Ent" statistic is not complete. Information about Asian Hopman Cup, a qualifying tournament which ran from 2006 until 2009 and granted the winners entry into the Hopman Cup the following year, is missing.
;Notes

Asian Hopman Cup

2007--
Host: ThailandWinner: Chinese TaipeiParticipants: China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Uzbekistan
Group AGroup BFinal
1. Thailand
2. South Korea
3. China 		1. Chinese Taipei
2. Japan
3. Uzbekistan 		Chinese Taipei d Thailand 2–1
Thailand d South Korea 2–0
Thailand d China 3–0
South Korea d China 3–0		Chinese Taipei d Japan 2–1
Chinese Taipei d Uzbekistan 3–0
Japan d Uzbekistan 2–1		-

2008--
Host: KazakhstanWinner: Chinese TaipeiParticipants: China, Chinese Taipei, India, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Thailand
Group AGroup BFinal
1. Chinese Taipei
2. India
3. South Korea 		1. Kazakhstan
2. Thailand
3. China 		Chinese Taipei d Kazakhstan ?-?
Chinese Taipei d India 3–0
Chinese Taipei d South Korea 3–0
India d South Korea 2–1		Kazakhstan d Thailand 2–1
Kazakhstan d China 3–0
Thailand d China 2–1		-

2009--
Host: KazakhstanWinner: KazakhstanParticipants: China, Chinese Taipei, India, Kazakhstan, Thailand
Group AGroup BFinal
Kazakhstan d Chinese Taipei ?-?