The Hopeman Cup Tennis Tournament
In the world of international tennis, the Davis Cup and the Federation Cup are annual tennis tournaments for international competitors in men’s and woman’s tennis. Following a similar format, the Hopeman Cup is the unique tournament which combines men and woman into teams representing their country. The tournament is a sanctioned event by the ITF but does not take individual player rankings into consideration.
The origins of the Hopeman cup date back to the late 1980’s when three Australian players discussed the idea of holding an international mixed-gender tennis competition in Perth. It was designed to showcase world tennis talent in both men’s and woman’s divisions. Fronted by Tennis champ Pat Cash, the competition was to be named in honour of Harry Hopeman, the Australian Davis Cup legend. After receiving the endorsement of the ITF and Mrs Lucy Hopeman, the inaugural competition was held in 1989 with Pat Cash and Steffi Graf playing as headline acts.
The Hopeman Cup Mixed-Gender Format
Since 1989, the Hopeman Cup has been played every year in Perth in early January. The competition receives extensive media coverage and is a considered to be an important lead-up tournament to the famous Australian Open. Eight nations are selected to compete in the competition with one male and one female player representing their nation as a team. The eight competing teams are split into two groups of four which face off in a round-robin format. Each team plays one individual men’s match, one individual woman’s match and one mixed doubles match to move to the next round.
The top-placed team in each group meet up to play in the final of the Hopeman Cup. The Winners are presented with a silver cup trophy and individual trophies. The individual trophies consist of a diamond-encrusted gold tennis racket and ball with an approximate value of $26,000. Australia are the most recent winners, claiming the 2016 title for the first time in 17 years.
Hopeman Cup Tennis Bets
The Hopeman Cup offers bettors ample opportunity to visit online betting throughout the competition. Before the event has even taken place, bettors can place bets on which countries will nations will be selected to take part in the competition. This involves placing a bet on a specific country that will compete. Once the competition is under way, bettors can place bets on individual matches in all three categories including men’s matches, woman’s matches and the mixed doubles matches.
Placing a bet on an individual match can be difficult as each matchup brings different competitors to the table with different strengths and weaknesses. The most commonly placed tennis bet in the Hopeman Cup is the outright winner. This is a bet on which nation or team will win the trophy in the finals. To add to this, there are a full list of exotic tennis bets that can be placed on any single match. The exotic bets include bets on which player will win the first set, which player will score the first ace, if the first, second or third set will be a tie-breaker and how many sets will be played in the match.
