Judy Murray: Hopman Cup Match Day 1

The Great Britain team of Andy Murray and Heather Watson are off and running at the Hopman Cup in Perth after a 2-1 victory over France.

Andy won his singles against Benoit Paire 6-2, 7-5 before Heather lost out 6-2, 6-2 to Alize Cornet. They then teamed up for a tight mixed doubles encounter but prevailed 6-4, 2-6, 10-8.

Watching it all courtside was Fed Cup captain Judy Murray who is kindly writing a blog for us throughout the tournament!

Day 1

First time for me at the Hopman Cup and it was a baptism of fire with it being 44 degrees - the third hottest day on record in Perth. Thankfully the wonderful new Perth Arena has a retractable roof, so when the temperature hits 40 degrees, it gets closed. However, the practice courts are not covered and that means sunblock, cap, sweatbands, several changes of t-shirt and a whole lot of towelling. It is like playing tennis in a sauna.

Hit with the stars

There are great opportunities for the best local teenagers to sign up as on-site hitting partners for the top players this week. There are two matches per day - one starting at 10am and the other at 17.30pm. The only other players around at the same time as you are your opponents and you don't want to practice with the person you are about to play against so a top local player is brought in instead.

Team tennis

I love team tennis, especially when the team is mixed and the format is a bit different. It's so good for the sport. It brings variety to the same sex events which dominate the ATP/WTA/ITF Tours and is a lot of fun for both the players and the fans.

In this day and age, where entertainment is key, fan engagement is crucial to building crowds. At the Hopman Cup there are eight teams split into two round-robin groups.

Great Britain, who have never won this event but were runners up in 2010, have been drawn with defending champions France, Poland and Australia. The other group has USA, Italy, Canada and Czech Republic. Each team has one man and one woman and a rubber consists of two singles and a mixed doubles.

It is a great way to start the year and build up to the Australian Open with a guaranteed three singles and three mixed doubles matches within six days in similar conditions to Melbourne.

Our team of Heather and Andy got off to a good start with a 2-1 win over France, taking the deciding mixed doubles 10-8 against Benoit Paire and Alize Cornet in the super breaker. Cheers Benoit for double-faulting to Hev on match point :)

Dance-offs

There was a great atmosphere last night and huge support for Andy and Heather. About 8,000 people were in the stadium and all were given a freebie handheld flag for whichever country they support. This was a smart move from the organisers, as was the roving MC who floated in amongst the crowd at changeovers and did mini interviews with fans, twitter polls and dance-offs.

All of which were shown on the big screens around the arena along with selfie tweets from the event. Hev was asked to throw a few shapes in the post-match interview on court but bailed! She did, however, promise to bust some moves if GB wins the event..........watch this space. 

Thankfully nobody asked me to dance........can't think why :)

Starbucks for Serena

USA beat Italy in their opening match yesterday and the chat of the day was Serena ordering an espresso midway through the second set, having lost the first 6-0 to Flavia Pennetta. Not sure what kind of coffee it was but it clearly woke her up because she won 0-6 6-3 6-0. When she was asked about it in the press conference after the match she said, "I just fancied a coffee to go with my bagel!" Quality!

Up next: Poland

Today is a practice day for our team. Hev is hitting on site with her coach Diego Veronelli and Andy has opted for the Perth Tennis Centre and a hit with Benoit Paire, followed by some drills with Amelie.

It is quite breezy today, which is useful preparation for Melbourne, where you really never know what the weather is going to throw at you. So few players practice in the wind it can be a real test of skill, patience and concentration in match conditions.

On Wednesday morning we take on Poland. That's Jerzy Boy Janowicz and Agnieszka Radwanska. Jerzy is about 6ft7 and Aga has been working with Martina Navratilova in the off-season. Should be interesting.