Editions 29 (2017) Category ITF exhibition | Location Perth
Australia Surface Hard indoor | |
 | ||
Founded 1989; 28 years ago (1989) Venue Burswood Dome (1989–2012)
Perth Arena (2013–present) | ||
The Hopman Cup is an annual international eight-team indoor hardcourt tennis tournament held in Perth, Western Australia in early January (sometimes commencing in late December) each year, which plays mixed-gender teams on a country-by-country basis.
Contents
The championship is named in honour of Harry Hopman (1906–1985), an Australian tennis player and coach who guided the country to 15 Davis Cup titles between 1938 and 1969. Since the Hopman Cup was founded in 1989, it has been attended each year by Harry Hopman's widow, his second wife Lucy, who travels to the tournament annually from her home in the United States.
The tournament is a sanctioned event in the calendar of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), but individual player results are not included in the calculation of the tennis world rankings. The competition receives extensive television coverage in Australia and is an important lead-up tournament to the Australian Open each January as part of the Australian Open Series. The winning team receives a silver cup perpetual trophy and up to 2014 the winning team members were presented with distinctive individual trophies in the shape of a tennis ball encrusted with diamonds from the Argyle diamond mine in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. In 2014 and 2015, the individual trophies were created in the shape of an intricate diamond encrusted tennis racket and ball, using just under an ounce of 18-carat white, yellow and rose gold and approximately half an ounce of pink argyle diamonds. These trophies are valued at $26,000.
Until 2012, the Hopman Cup was played at the Burswood Dome. Since 2013, the Hopman Cup has been played at the Perth Arena.
Format
Unlike other major international team tennis tournaments such as the Davis Cup and the Fed Cup, which are for men or women only, the Hopman Cup is a mixed competition in which male and female players are on combined teams and represent their countries. Players are invited to attend and national coaches are not involved in selecting teams.
Eight nations are selected annually to compete in the Hopman Cup. (The "last" team may be decided by play-offs between several nations before competition begins. For the 2007 Hopman Cup however, this did not occur, due to the Asian Qualifying Tournament creating the eighth team. The official tournament website also has no qualifier listed in its schedule.)
Each team consists of one male player and one female player. Each match-up between two teams at the championships consists of:
The eight competing teams are separated into two groups of four (with two teams being seeded) and face-off against each of the other three teams in their group in a round-robin format. These seedings ensure that each group has approximately similar strength. The top team in each group then meet in a final to decide the champions.
If a player is injured then a player of a lower ranking of that nation may be the substitute.
Management
The 2014 Hopman Cup Tournament Director is Paul Kilderry after the resignation of Steve Ayles. Previously, the former Australian tennis player Paul McNamee, who played a key role in the founding of the championships, was the tournament director.
History
Up to and including 2012, the venue was the Burswood Dome at the Burswood Entertainment Complex.
The 2005/06 Hopman Cup was the first elite-level tennis tournament in which the system was introduced allowing players to challenge point-ending line calls similar to that in clay court tournaments. The challenged calls are immediately reviewed on a large monitor using Hawk-Eye technology.
The 20th Hopman Cup, in 2008, was intended to be the last held at the Burswood Dome, however this was extended until 2012 when the new Perth Arena was due for completion.
2013 marks the 25th year of the running of the Hopman Cup.
Telecasts
The Hopman Cup was originally broadcast by the Seven Network until 1994, then by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (1995–2010). From 2011, a five-year deal to broadcast the Hopman Cup was signed by the commercial television station Network Ten a deal which ended abruptly in November 2013. 7mate subsequently picked up the telecasting rights.