[AmfitNom]

To answer a few earlier questions:



The last team will be a qualifying team from Asia. A few Asian countries (India, Thailand, Korea, etc) participate in a playoff to determine who gets the last spot. There won't be a Serb team, because I'm pretty sure Ana and Jelena are both entered in the Hong Kong exhibition tournament (along with Venus, Maria, and others), and if I'm not mistaken that tournament is going on at the same time as Hopman Cup.

Also, in case Marat does indeed "retire"... Andreev is prepared to be the alternate for Hopman Cup if necessary. I'd love to see Marat and Dinara team up though! Williams/Blake vs Safina/Safin... can't get much better than that in mixed doubles!


Group A

USA: Serena Williams and James Blake ( 1st seeded )

Australia: Casey Dellacqua and Lleyton Hewitt ( 4th seeded )

Slovak Republic: Dominika Cibulkova and Dominik Hrbaty

Germany: Sabine Lisicki and Nicolas Kiefer


Group B

Russia: Dinara Safina and Marat Safin ( 2nd seeded )

France: Alize Cornet and Gilles Simon ( 3rd seeded )

Italy: Flavia Pennetta and Simone Bolelli

Asia Qualifier: ( Thailand / Chinese Taipei / India / China / Korea / Kazakhstan )






PERTH, Australia: Serena Williams and James Blake will represent the top-seeded United States in the Hopman Cup mixed teams tennis tournament, organizers said Tuesday.

Williams and Blake combined to win the 2003 Hopman Cup — one of four titles for the United States in the 20-year history of the event.

Lleyton Hewitt and Casey Dellacqua are scheduled to represent Australia in the Jan. 3-9 tournament.

Dominika Cibulkova will partner Dominik Hrbaty for Slovakia, Germany will be represented by Sabine Lisicki and Nicolas Kiefer and France has top 20 players Alize Cornet and Gilles Simon in its team for the eight-nation event.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/...man-Cup-US.php