India win Asian Hopman Cup

Hyderabad: Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna powered electrifying wins to blank Chinese Taipei 3-0 and lift the inaugural Asian Hopman Cup.

The win also fetched India a berth in the main draw of the Hopman Cup to be held in Australia.

Sania Mirza set the tone of the tie with a convincing 6-2, 6-4 win over Hsuan Hwang before Davis Cupper Bopanna relied on his power packed serves to hand over a 6-3 6-4 drubbing of Ti Chen.

The duo them combined in the mixed doubles to beat Hwang and Chen.

Sania, recovering from last night's fever, was not in her elements but outplayed his opponent, ranked 316 in world.

Sania broke Hwang in the fifth and seventh games in the first set with huge applause from the spectators.

In the second set, Sania drew first blood and broke Hwang in the very first game and then held her serve to lead 2-0 to the delight of the capacity crowd.

Hwang did not give up and came close to 3-4 at one stage but the power packed forehand of Sania kept the Taipei player at bay and went on to pick up the second set at 6-4 to give India a 1-0 lead.

"I did not have the energy to reply to some of the serves but was just there and could win the match," Sania said after the match.

"I did not have energy to pick up some of the serves. Now I am feeling a bit better, hope I will be recover fully for the mixed doubles", she said.

In the men's singles, Bopanna displayed some his skills and power packed serves to the delight of the holiday crowd leaving his opponent Ti Chen rattled on many occasions.

Chen put in some resistance initially but he checked at 4-2 as Bopanna made most of his serves to take the first set 6-3.

"I was working on my serves and they had fetched me good points," Bopanna said after the match.

The second set appeared to be a tough battle till an argument with referee over a point rattled Chen and he lost focus. The point went Bopanna's way who was up 4-2.

Bopanna took the second set 6-4 enabling India to earn a berth in the main draw of the Hopman Cup next month along with Australia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, Spain and USA.

After attaining the unassailable 2-0 lead in the mixed doubles match, the Indian pair took the first set at 6-1 with ease and the visitors conceded the second set to hand over a 3-0 win to hosts.

The players later enthralled the crowd by playing a tie-break which was won the by visitors at 10-8.