Kazakhstan beat Taiwan to make Hopman Cup debut

PERTH: Kazakhstan will make their Hopman Cup debut next year, after winning the Asian Hopman Cup.

The Kazakh pairing of Andrey Golubev and Yaroslava Shvedova qualified for the unique mixed teams tournament from Jan 2-9 by beating defending Asian Hopman Cup champions Taiwan in Kazakhstan 2-1 on Sunday.

They complete the eight nations for the event, and will open their tournament against the British pairing of world number four Andy Murray and teenager Laura Robson on Jan 4.

The result capped a good couple of weeks for Gobulev, 22, who won an indoor tournament in his home country just days before the Asian Hopman Cup.

Gobulev is ranked 139th in the world, having reached a career high of 56 earlier this year, and reached two finals this year, with his best scalp top-20 player Radek Stepanek in Montreal.

Moscow-born Shvedova, also 22, is currently ranked 53rd, having broken into the top 50 for the first time this year.

Her polished doubles skills could come in handy in the mixed doubles here, and she reached the third round of the French Open and US Open this year, upsetting world number five Jelena Jankovic in the latter.

The rankings for the tournament were announced last month, with the home team pairing of Lleyton Hewitt and Samantha Stosur the top seeds. — AFP