Novak Djokovic played a leading role as Serbia destroyed Australia at the Hopman Cup.
Djokovic enjoyed his fifth straight win over Lleyton Hewitt, seeing off the local favourite 6-2, 6-4 despite the vociferous support of the Perth crowd. The scoreline may look straightforward but it was a hard-fought baseline slugfest with one rally lasting 27 shots.
In the end however, Djokovic's greater firepower proved too much. "It was a bit lucky for me in the end, but that’s tennis, it was a great point. To be honest even though the result looks like a comfortable win, I had to work for my points and it was a long match," he said.
"It was a difficult encounter, I was aware of that. Anywhere you play Lleyton, especially in Australia, you are always going to get a very difficult one. But I played great from the start of the match, especially the end of the first set and the beginning of the second I was playing some of the best tennis that I’ve played in this year and a half."
He then teamed up with Ana Ivanovic to defeat Hewitt and Alicia Molik 6-7, 7-5, 10-6.
Serbia now take on Belgium in a much anticipated clash on Thursday.
