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Tennis: Hopman Cup Day 1
This will be the first of many picks that I'll bring in here during the season that begins now!
Hopman Cup: Australia (0-0) vs Czech Republic (0-0) - Tie begins at Saturday, 09:00 GMT
The Hopman Cup is a teams competition, where each country has a male and a female player. After a men's singles match and a women's singles match are played, a mixed doubles match is played between the two teams. The country with most wins, gets the tie.
Australia: Peter Luczak & Alicia Molik
Czech Republic: Tomas Berdych & Lucie Safarova
Matches played in Perth, Australia. The surface is indoor hard.
Match #1: Alicia Molik (AUS) vs Lucie Safarova (CZE)
Alicia Molik will represent her country in this competition for the fourth time. She possesses a 7-2 record in here, with wins over Kim Clijsters, Daniela Hantuchova and Nadia Petrova. The fact that the first tournament of the season is in her home country, gives her a big advantage over her opponents, as she didn't need to travel and she will be more used to the hot conditions that Australia offers in the Summer. This match will be played at 6:00PM, so even though they won't play in the hottest hours in the day, the players will still face very hot conditions during the match, something that will help Molik.
In terms of matchup, this is an interesting one. Molik has a big serve (one of the biggest in the women's circuit) that gives her a good amount of free points on her service games. She is one of the few players in the women's circuit capable of having double digits aces in a match. For example, she hit 22 aces against Venus Williams in Tokyo last season. Her movement on court is far from perfect, but her powerful strokes avoid her opponents to expose the bad movement of Molik, especially on a fast surface like this one. Molik is also a versatile and experienced player, being capable of hitting some nice touch shots in the net. She is also one of the players that really benefits from playing on her homecountry. Her record of 29-9 in matches played in Australia since 2003 clearly demonstrates that. Molik also seems confident according to her lastest words to the journalists:
"I think we have both been working pretty hard the last few months, I don't think fitness is a question, we're hoping to get through the whole week unscathed," Molik said.
Lucie Safarova represents her country in this tournament for the second time in a row. She lost the first three sets she played in here last year (the two sets of her first match and the first set of her second match) and won the last three sets she played in here (the second and third set of her second match and the two sets of her third match). This shows something that it's obvious when you see Safarova playing. She needs time to play well, as she needs some momentum to get some nice wins for her side. She is pretty inconsistent, as she is a shot maker. This means that when she's on, she makes winners. The problem is wၨen she can't find her own rhythm and sprays unforced errors all over the court. And I clearly doubt she will get her rhythm back on her first match of the season, especially in the hard conditions this match will be played.
Also Safarova has finished her season with some injury concerns, as she has only played two matches in the indoors seasons, two matches where she got slaughtered (3:6 3:6 vs Peer and 1:6 3:6 vs Hantuchova). The lack of match practice for her may be a concern, especially she isn't known for being a 100% dedicated player, so I doubt she will be 100% fit and motivated to play an exhibition tournament far away for her country, especially when her partner is her long-time boyfriend, Tomas Berdych.
This match will put face to face, two different players. Alicia Molik is an experienced player, playing on her home country that clearly likes this tournament and the crowd support that helps her in playing her best tennis. She has cameback after a career threating injury and she clearly wants to be in here, as she takes a lot of pleasure for playing tennis, her true passion. She will be also more used to the hot conditions in here than Safarova, who comes from the very cold European winter and will have some problems in adapting to such different conditions in just a few days. Molik is the most motivated player to win in here and the one that has already proved that doesn't need a lot of match practice to play a level of tennis close enough to her 100%. I'll take the Australian player to get the 1-0 for her country in here.
Match #2: Peter Luczak (AUS) vs Tomas Berdych (CZE)
Peter Luczak was for the first time, the chosen player to represent the homecountry in this competition and this is a surprise, as Luczak is probably the Australian player that most dislikes fast surfaces and most prefers clay. Luczak is a decent baseliner, but I don't think he will be able to cope with Berdych's powerful forehand strokes. The crowd will help Luczak a lot and he will be clearly the most motivated player of the two to get the win in here, but honestly I don't think this will be enough to Luczak upset the most talented Berdych. The task of Luczak in here will be mostly to stay in the match the longest time possible, so Molik can rest the necessary time to be at 100% for the mixed doubles match.
Even though Luczak may pull a nice fight and take a set to a tie-break, Berdych should give his country the 1-1 in here and delay the decision of the tie to the mixed doubles match.
Match #3: Alicia Molik & Peter Luczak (AUS/AUS) vs Lucie Safarova & Tomas Berdych (CZE/CZE)
After about three hours of preparation during the singles matches, the noisy Australian crowd should be ready to make the Czech duo have a bad time in this deciding matchup. Alicia Molik is one of the best doubles specialists in the women's circuit and she is the reigning Roland Garros women's doubles champion, together with the Italian Mara Santangelo. Her nice serve and her ability to finish the points in the net are two points in favor of her that help her in being the great doubles player that she is. She has won several ties in a third set of the mixed doubles in this competition, so if the drama is on, make the Australians the favorites to get the win in here. She has almost 10 years in the circuit and it won't be a third set in here that will make her nervous. Also if she comes from a win over Safarova earlier in the tie, she will have some momentum and it will be really hard to stop her in here.
Peter Luczak isn't exactly a good doubles player, but the fact that he will have such experienced doubles partner like Molik, will help him in playing at a reasonable level. Molik is used to play in here with non-doubles specialists like Paul Baccanello and Nathan Healey and she has always seemed capable of helping her partners in playing with the necessary level to win this decisive match. Luczak is likely to coming from a singles defeat, but that will be expected, so I don't think he will re-enter the court with any kind of lack of confidence. Luczak is already 28 years old, so he should forget about his singles loss in the moment the mixed doubles match starts.
Molik and Luczak have also been training together in the last weeks together to prepare this tournament in the best way possible.
"Luczak was pleased to be playing with Alicia Molik, and on courts like those he would be playing on at next month's Australian Open."
"I've been seeing a bit of Alicia lately because we have both been training at Melbourne Park over the last four or five weeks," Luczak said.
"She's been there every day and every time we see each other in the gym, we fire each other up and say 'come on, let's do it for the Hopman Cup'. She's looking fit and ready to go and has always done well over here in the past."
Now, onto the Czech duo. Both players are pretty talented, but neither of them is even close to be a doubles specialist. They played the Hopman Cup last season and they lost all mixed doubles matches they had to play. Safarova is even capable of doing something even more amazing. She has never won a doubles match in all her life at WTA level! She has a doubles career record of 0-14! Something just unbelievable, even when her style of play is exactly the opposite of the style a doubles specialist should have. Safarova hates to come to the net and her serve isn't exactly very strong. The fact that she doesn't have enough patience to play a long point doesn't help her neither. If she comes from a loss against Molik, she will lack motivation in here and she will end up screwing the chances of a Czech win in the tie.
Tomas Berdych is a little bit better than his girlfriend in doubles matches, but he isn't very good too. He is just the number 164th in the doubles rankings and his net play isn't exactly the best out there. Even though he has a good serve, his ability to play doubles matches isn't good enough to compensate the lack of ability of Safarova to play doubles.
If the tie is only decided in this final match, then Australia is the big favorite to get the win. Besides the crowd support, they possess the only doubles specialist in this matchup and Safarova and her amazing doubles record will be in the other side of the court. Australia playing at home should have too much support and ability to play doubles for the Czech Republic duo.
Play 1* unit on Australia to win the tie @ +165
Good luck!
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Originally Posted by andre silva
