The Hopman Cup final between Serbia and Spain will be decided by the mixed doubles after Anabel Medina Garrigues upset former world No.1 Ana Ivanovic 6-4 6-7 (7-3) 6-2 at Perth Arena on Saturday night.
World No.1 Novak Djokovic gave top-seeded Serbia a 1-0 lead when he beat Fernando Verdasco 6-3 7-5.
But an off-colour Ivanovic couldn’t seal the tie, with Medina Garrigues prevailing in an error-riddled affair.
World No.13 Ivanovic was a hot favourite to beat world No.50 Medina Garrigues.
But the 2008 French Open champion looked off her game in the opening set, committing a glut of unforced errors to hand the ascendancy to Medina Garrigues.
Ivanovic snared an early break in the second set, but she called for the trainer at 2-0 up after feeling ill.
Medina Garrigues broke back late in the set to send it to a tiebreak, but Ivanovic produced the goods to level the match at one set apiece.
However, Ivanovic’s growing tally of unforced errors came back to haunt her, with the glamorous Serbian committing 46 all up to Medina Garrigues’ 16
Earlier in the men’s singles rubber, Verdasco unleashed 21 winners to 15, but his 34 unforced errors proved to be his undoing, with Djokovic committing just 13 in comparison.
Serbia have never won a Hopman Cup title, while Spain are a three-times champion at the mixed-teams event, which is in its 25th year.
Djokovic broke world No.24 Verdasco in the fourth game of the match to propel him to first-set honours.
Verdasco unleashed an array of blistering ground strokes to race out to a 3-0 lead early in the third set.
But Djokovic hit back, breaking Verdasco in the fifth and 11th games to secure the match in 92 minutes.
“It’s difficult to player against a player like him. He’s very aggressive and serves over 200kmh,” Djokovic said of his win over Verdasco.
“I’m really delighted to be in Perth once again and hopefully Ana can bring the trophy home for Serbia.”
Verdasco, wearing contacts, struggled with his eyesight at times during the match.
The 29-year-old entered the clash having won his past two matches against Djokovic, although the Serbian still held a 5-4 edge on the overall head-to-head ledger.
Djokovic was upset in straight sets by Australian Bernard Tomic on Wednesday.
But after getting some good rest under his belt, the five-times grand slam winner moved crisply and struck the ball well in Friday night’s win over Andreas Seppi and Saturday’s triumph over Verdasco.
