
New Aussie has a win at Hopman Cup
New Aussie Daria Gavrilova overcame a bout of nerves to beat Germany's Sabine Lisicki 6-2 6-2 in her first appearance for Australia at the Hopman Cup in Perth.
The Russian-born 21-year-old, who only secured her Australian passport a few weeks ago, said she was thrilled to have opened her representative career for her new country with a win.
"I couldn't believe how well I handled it. I was so nervous," Gavrilova said after her win.
"I played pretty well. I held my serve. So I'm very happy.
"I'm just really proud to represent Australia. It meant so much. When I was there and they played the national anthem, I was so happy. I was smiling."
Gavrilova, voted the WTA's newcomer of the year in 2015 after lifting her world ranking from 233 to 36, is playing with
Nick Kyrgios in the Australia Green team, while Lleyton Hewitt and Jarmila Wolfe (formerly Gajdosova) are playing as Australia Gold.
After Gavrilova got the team off to a flying start, Kyrgios secured the tie by beating German rising star Alexander Zverev 4-6 6-1 6-4.
The pair then combined in the mixed doubles to see off the Germans 6-3 4-6 10-7.
Hewitt and Wolfe were due to begin their campaign against Jiri Vesely and Karolina Pliskova last night.
World No.1 Serena Williams will be in action this morning with Jack Sock when the USA takes on Ukraine. Tonight's session will feature Great Britain against France, with Andy Murray and Heather Watson representing Great Britain.
