Serena, Tiafoe to represent U.S. at Hopman Cup

Serena Williams and Frances Tiafoe will join forces in Perth, Australia, to represent Team USA at the Hopman Cup. This year’s star-studded competition also includes Roger Federer, Alex Zverev, Angelique Kerber and Garbiñe Muguruza.

Both Williams and Tiafoe are coming off eventful and successful 2018 campaigns, with Williams reaching the Wimbledon and US Open women’s single finals in her first season as a mother, and Tiafoe winning his first ATP title in Delray Beach, Fla., and debuting for the U.S. Davis Cup team in the semifinals against eventual champions Croatia.

The Americans will compete in Group B, which includes Switzerland (Federer, Belinda Bencic), Greece (Stefanos Tsitsipas, Maria Sakkari) and Great Britain (Cameron Norrie, Katie Boulter).

Williams and Tiafoe will open play on New Year’s Eve in Australia (9 p.m. ET on Sunday in the U.S., due to a 13-hour time difference) against Greece. They will then face the Swiss team on New Year’s Day, before rounding out group play against Great Britain on Jan. 3.

Group A includes Germany (Zverev, Angelique Kerber), Spain (David Ferrer, Muguruza), France (Lucas Pouille, Alize Cornet) and Australia (Mat Ebden, Ashleigh Barty).

Only the top team from each group will advance to the final, set to take place on Jan. 5.  

Each team match is a best-of-three contest, with men’s and women’s singles followed by mixed doubles. The singles matches are a standard three sets, while the doubles match is a shortened format, still two out of three sets, but with four games required to win each set and a first-to-five tiebreak played at 3-all.

The U.S. is the most successful nation in Hopman Cup history, lifting the title a record six times, in addition to a record six additional final appearances dating back to the inaugural event 1989. Though the U.S. did not field a team in the first Hopman Cup, the nation has participated in every event since 1990. Jack Sock and CoCo Vandeweghe teamed to reach the finals in 2017, while John Isner and Bethanie Mattek-Sands were the last American champs, in 2011. Other Americans to compete in the Hopman Cup include John McEnroe, Venus Williams, Monica Seles, and Lindsay Davenport.

For more information, including complete schedules and results, visit the official Hopman Cup website.