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Aussie tennis favourite gets stunning reprieve after 'heartbreaking' axing

Australian Associated Press

The mixed-gender Hopman Cup team event is set to return in 2021 after losing its traditional New Year slot on the tennis calendar, International Tennis Federation president David Haggerty says.

This year's 31st edition of the tournament, unique in that it is the only top-level mixed team event, saw Roger Federer lead Switzerland to the title in Perth against Germany in what fans and players feared would be a golden swansong.

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Next year's inaugural ATP Cup, a new men's team competition based in Sydney, Brisbane and Perth, and offering $US20 million ($A30 million) in prize money together with ranking points, has taken the Hopman Cup's popular pre-Australian Open warm-up slot, but Haggerty insists it will return.

"Absolutely," the American, re-elected last month for a second four-year term as ITF president, told Reuters in a phone interview when asked if one of the organisation's flagship events still had a future.

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Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic, pictured here after winning the 2019 Hopman Cup.
Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic won the 2019 Hopman Cup. (Photo by Will Russell/Getty Images)

"Our plan is to re-introduce it for 2021. We don't have plans for the Hopman Cup in 2020 but we are going out to the market for expressions of interest and we have already had quite a few enquiries."

Haggerty said there was flexibility about where and at what time of year the Hopman Cup would re-surface and did not rule out it continuing in Australia.

Federer and Serena lit up 2019 Hopman Cup

Last year's edition of the event, named in honour of Australian great Harry Hopman and started in 1989, was a vintage one with the highlight being a first-ever match featuring Federer and Serena Williams on opposite sides of the net.

The tennis legends both said it would be sad if the event was axed, with Serena describing it as ‘heartbreaking’.

"It could really be anywhere in the world and any time in the calendar," American Haggerty, who has overseen a revamp of the men's Davis Cup and women's Fed Cup, said.

Serena Williams and Roger Federer, pictured here at the 2019 edition of the Hopman Cup.
Serena Williams and Roger Federer at the 2019 Hopman Cup. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)

"The reason to do the expressions of interest is really to get the feedback from the nations and cities that have an interest and see what their proposal would be," he added.

"I can confirm we have interest from every continent."

The Hopman Cup, played in the Perth Arena from 2013-19 having moved from the Burswood Dome, was the first elite-level tennis tournament to introduced the Hawkeye Challenge system in 2006.