PERTH – Serbian Ana Ivanovic overcame an injury scare as her top seeded nation closed in on a berth in the Hopman Cup final with a 3-0 win over Australia in the mixed teams tournament on Tuesday. Ivanovic gave her country the lead with a straight sets win over Alicia Molik in the women’s singles, 6-4, 6-0, but felt a sharp pain in her left knee in the third game of the second set.
The world number 17 pulled up sore after the last point of the third game, in which she broke the Molik serve, and called for the trainer immediately, but was able to finish the match off before seeking further diagnosis. She was cleared of any major damage and was able to play in the mixed doubles. World number three Novak Djokovic then secured the tie for the Serbians with a 6-2, 6-4 win over former world number one Lleyton Hewitt.
The pairing then took the mixed doubles in a match tiebreak, 6-7 (5/7), 7-5, 10-6. With clean sweep wins in their first two ties, the Serbians only need to win one rubber against Belgium on Thursday to book their spot in Saturday’s final. Earlier, another former world number one, Justine Henin, led Belgium to a 3-0 win over Kazakhstan.
Henin made it two wins from as many singles matches here in her comeback from a career-threatening elbow injury with a straight sets win over Kazak substitute Sesil Karatantcheva, 6-4, 6-3. World number 172 Ruben Bemelmans then stunned the 36th-ranked Andrey Golubev with a straight sets win, 6-4, 6-4, to secure the tie for the Belgians and keep them in the running for Saturday’s final.
The Belgians, who lost to Australia in the tournament opener on Saturday, completed a clean sweep by coming from a set down to defeat the Kazaks in the mixed doubles in a match tiebreak, 4-6, 6-2, 10-8. With two losses from as many ties, Kazakhstan are already out of contention for the final. Karatantcheva had only arrived in Perth overnight as a replacement for injured world number 39 Yaroslava Shvedova, but the 21-year-old put up a solid fight against the seven-time Grand Slam champion.
