The Swiss pair of Belinda Bencic and Roger Federer made a complete sweep of their team play against Great Britain in the annual Hopman Cup exhibition tournament in Perth, Australia, a warm-up for the Australian Open.
After Federer had defeated Evans in a quick and routine 6-3, 6-4 match, and Bencic had come through over Watson in a three setter, 7-5. 3-6. 6-2, the four took to the court for the mixed doubles that concludes each round robin meeting between teams. Although Watson sports the 2016 Wimbledon Mixed Doubles trophy in her list of accomplishments (with Henri Kontinen), for the most part the resumés of the four players suggested the Swiss would take the match. Yes, Bencic played only 9 doubles tournaments in 2016, compared to Watson’s 14, and Evans is ranked higher than Federer in doubles (277 vs 0), but Bencic is 32 spots above Watson in singles, and it’s safe to say the true rankings spread between Evans and Federer is greater than the current 50 places.
Federer is making his return to competitive tennis at the Hopman Cup after having lost at Wimbledon and then taking off the rest of 2016 to let his knee fully recuperate from surgery earlier in the year. Back in Perth for the first time in 15 years, he expressed great pleasure in being on the tennis battlefield for his singles match, “I was actually quite emotional, I must tell you, like when I walked in I was like ‘oh my God, this was better than I thought it was gonna be’.
The mixed doubles match began with Federer serving first under the night sky. After a solid hold the Swiss team broke Evans’ service to lead 2-0. Bencic held, demonstrating the theme of the night: the Swiss had simply too much firepower for the Brits, and looked more comfortable as a team as well. Federer was returning from the deuce court, and at 15-15 in Watson’s service game at 0-3 he went straight at Evans on the return, followed by the next ball, and then the third, squarely tagging the Birmingham native. It was all in keeping with a lighthearted atmosphere, however. No animosity was involved, and in fact Evans looked to return the favor on the next point, but failed to hit the Swiss all-time superstar.
Hopman Cup mixed doubles are played no ad – 40/40 points are played with the server and receiver having to be of the same gender – and sets are played to 4 games. At 0-3 Watson served to save the first set but on the game’s deciding point Watson served to Bencic’s forehand and Evans, at the net, moved to the center. Bencic, who displayed stellar doubles savvy all night long, cracked her forehand inside/in up the alley, caught Evans with a clean pass and took the set for Switzerland.
The second set was more of the same; while there were some entertaining points the Swiss team was simply too potent all around for Team GB. Although the first point of Evans’ service game at 0-1 was fabulous, with a number of excellent reflex volleys and plenty of touch all around, it took a lot for Evans and Watson to win the point. It was unlikely they could take the match if they had to play that way, that hard and that perfectly, every point.
Not surprisingly they could not. Watson barely missed acing Federer at 1/2, something she would surely have loved to recount years later, but she lost her serve and Federer closed out for the win, 4/0 4/1, at 40/15 on his service game.
In their next matches on Wednesday Switzerland takes on the German team of Andrea Petkovic and Alexander Zverev, while the UK play the French duo, Kristina Mladenovic and Richard Gasquet.
