Kerber, Zverev advance to Hopman Cup final
January 4, 2019
The victories gave the Germans an unassailable 2-0 lead on Friday, even before the mixed doubles finale was played.
Angelique Kerber and Alexander Zverev are to face defending champions Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic from Switzerland in Saturday's final.
Kerber, who has won all of her singles matches at this year's and last year's tournament, had little trouble with Ash Barty, winning in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.
"It's always tricky to play against a player like Ash but I was just trying to focus on my game, trying to be aggressive, taking the game in my hand, serving good and I think that was the key for the match today," the world's No. 2 women's player said in a post-match interview.
Zverev, who is undefeated in singles at this year's tournament, also won in straight sets, beating Matthew Ebden 6-4, 6-3 after breaking early in each set.
"We wanted to be back in the final," Zverev said afterwards. "It's nice to play Switzerland as well as we lost to them in a very close match last year."
Eight countries have been competing at the annual Hopman Cup, played in a round-robin format of two groups in Perth, Australia. The tournament is one of the warm-up events for the first Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open, which starts in 10 days' time.
pfd/ (dpa, SID)