Issue link: http://itf.uberflip.com/i/117483
��� HOPMAN CUP NEW YEAR S Anabel Medina Garrigues��� gleeful celebration on Spain winning the Hyundai Hopman Cup encapsulated a dazzling first week of the 2013 season at the ITF���s mixed team event in Perth. by Courtney Walsh PLAY Perth Arena, the competition���s new home Bernard Tomic upset world No. 1 Novak Djokovic It was Spain���s fourth Hopman Cup victory H eld for the first time at Perth Arena, record crowds attended the hotly-contested and entertaining 25th edition of the Hyundai Hopman Cup, with several results at the popular season curtain-raiser being finalised only in a supertiebreaker in the deciding mixed doubles. Fittingly given the milestone occasion, there were plots aplenty, though none could match the rousing reception Novak Djokovic received on completing a rendition of a Serbian folk song to ring in 2013 at the annual New Year���s Eve Ball. The American champion Venus Williams played in Perth for the first time and later lamented that she had waited so long to visit the beautiful city on the banks of the Swan River. The Australian 30 ITFWORLD SPRING 2013 debutantes Bernard Tomic and Ashleigh Barty also played with verve for the host country. It was the Spanish duo of Medina Garrigues and Fernando Verdasco, though, who proved themselves a champion pairing when upsetting the highly-fancied Serbian combination in the final of the tournament. Djokovic and his close friend Ana Ivanovic arrived in Western Australia seeking redemption for the disappointment of 2011 when a stomach injury forced the latter to pull out of the final. All week they appealed as the combination to beat, even given a close call against Australia after Tomic upset Djokovic in the opening singles, but in the end they were denied in the final by the inspired play of Medina Garrigues. On beating Ivanovic in a three-set tussle to level the final following Djokovic���s victory over Verdasco, Medina Garrigues fell on to her back and celebrated as though she had won a Grand Slam. Her reasoning made sense. The new stadium, when filled near capacity, carried the atmosphere of a major final and Medina Garrigues was delighted. ���I (had) been dreaming all my life about playing in great stadiums. The crowd was like a Grand Slam,��� she said. The Spaniards��� celebration on winning an enthralling mixed doubles was even more entertaining, with Medina Garrigues leaping into Verdasco���s arms and refusing to let go. The lefthander later agreed that his partner had a right to be carried; after failing to win a live singles through the Hopman Cup, Verdasco quipped that