Asian Hopman Cup in Astana starts tomorrow

Danai Udomchoke has posted some photos from Astana, Kazakhstan. He is there to represent Thailand in the Asian Hopman Cup.


Thanks to Esther for getting in touch with the media team in Kazakhstan for the latest press release regarding the tournament. Here you go:

A unique team superiority on tennis will be held in November 12 -15 in Astana.

For the first time the Asian qualifying stage of the Hopman Cup where the teams of China, India, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Korea and Kazakhstan will participate, takes place in the capital of Kazakhstan.

The tournament winners will get a chance to play in a draw of the Australian Hopman Cup among 8 best world teams.

Hopman Cup - is a yearly international tennis team tournament, which was found in 1989 and is held in Perth of the Western Australia in the beginning of January (sometimes at the end of December).

The competitions were named in honour of Harry Hopman (12.08.1906-27.12.1985) - one of the greatest tennis players and a famous Australian coach.

For 30 years he guided young talented players to victories on 15 Davis Cups and 21 Challengers rounds.

What the difference of Hopman Cup from other team tennis competitions?
Unlike other major international team tennis tournaments like the Davis Cup and the Fed Cup, which are strictly for men or women only, the Hopman Cup is a mixed competition where male and female players team up together on combined teams.

Each team consists of one male player and one female player. Each match-up between two teams at the championships consists of:

• one women's singles match
• one men's singles match
• one mixed doubles match

In the Asian qualifying stage 6 competing teams will be divided into 2 groups. The winner of each subgroup will play for the pass to Australia.

The honour of their countries will be defended by: Udomchoke Danai and Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thailand), Lu Yen-Hsun and Hsieh Su-Wei(Chinese Taipei), Jun Woong Sun and Chae Kyung Yee (Korea), Li Zhe and Zhou Yimiao (China), Vishnu Vardhan and Shikha Uberoi (India).

The Kazakhstan banner will be carried by our first rackets –Andrey Golubev and Yaroslava Shvedova, who recently has gotten into best hundred tennis players in the WTA ranking.

The Tournament Director: Daniel Chambon
Referee: Andrey Kornilov (Uzbekistan)

(Images via Danai's official website)