Jarmila Gajdosova takes on Anabel Medina Garrigues in the first rubber of a cracking New Year's Day tie between Australia and Spain.
Spain have a rich history in team competitions and they won the Hopman Cup two years ago. However this is a tough opener for them. Australia are very much the dark horses in Group B and they'll have plenty of crowd support in Perth.
Gajdosova is making her Hopman Cup debut and the world number 33 performed strongly down under last year, winning the Hobart title. She will be feeling a little bit of extra pressure in this one as Lleyton Hewitt will definitely go into the second rubber as second favourite against Fernando Verdasco and the team will be relying on her to get them a confidence boosting start.
Medina Garrigues is a wily operator and she's ranked highly in both singles and doubles. The 29 year old Spaniard has carved out an impressive career for herself winning 11 singles titles and a further 18 on the doubles circuit.
However Gajdosova has won all three of their previous matches - 7-6, 6-4 at last year's French Open and 6-3, 6-0 a few months ago in Beijing. Look for her to win this one again in straight sets.
