Perth, Australia - AN incredible week of tennis at the Hyundai Hopman Cup has ended with the Slovak Republic winning an amazing final over Russia to become three-time champions.
The win for the Slovak Republic was set up with Dominika Cibulkova beating world No. 3 Russian Dinara Safina for the first time 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-4.
That match lasted 2hrs 28mins and then in a 2hr 32mins battle befitting of the final of one of the best Hyundai Hopman Cups, Dominik Hrbaty beat Marat Safin 6-7 (5), 7-5, 7-6 (3).The win for world No. 19 teenager Cibulkova and veteran Hrbaty follows up the Slovak Republic's win in 1998 and 2005.
Remarkably, the Slovak Republic has now won six straight Ties at Hopman Cups, having also gone through HHCXVII undefeated when Hrbaty won with Daniela Hantuchova.
It makes Hrbaty a dual winner to move into the company of Serena Williams, James Blake and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario.
It was a disappointing result for the Russian team, with the brother-sister team looking to win the Cup on their first, and possibly only, time teaming together. It is Safin's best result still in four visits to Perth though.
In the women's match, Cibulkova earned the first break of the match early in the first set, but Safina broke straight back.
From there, the opening set of the final went to a tie-break where Safina prevailed 7-3 and was handed the deciding point on a Cibulkova double fault.
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