TENNIS in DEPTH.

Britain completed a 2-1 victory against Kazakhstan in the Hopman Cup after a gruelling triumph in the mixed doubles.

After Laura Robson’s opening defeat, Andy Murray swept aside the world number 133 Andrey Golubev to win 6-2 6-2 in the eight-team competition.

Preparing for the Australian Open in two weeks, Murray will play at least three singles and doubles this week.

He and Robson defeated Golubev and Yaroslava Shvedova after a 12-10 final set win in the champions tie-break.

The day began with defeat for 15-year-old Robson who took the first set off the flu-ridden world number 52 Shvedova.

“I was very happy with the way I played in singles and Laura helped me out a lot in the doubles,” the Scot said.

The British pair enjoyed themselves in the mixed doubles and Murray quipped: “I’m going to blame her a little bit though because she started asking me if I moisturise my hands and I think maybe she lost her concentration just a little bit.”But she’s only 15 so I’ll let her off. It was fun. She hit me on the back at one point – I don’t think I really deserved that…it was sore already because I was carrying her!”

Robson matched her senior partner in the banter department with a nice line in self-deprecation and responded with: “I’m kind of proud of my volleys in the tiebreak, they’re the only ones we made! We  should communicate more so that he doesn’t hit me!”

Bookmark It