PERTH, Australia — Monica Seles returned to the Hopman Cup after a 10-year absence Monday, leading the United States to a 3-0 victory over Slovakia in the mixed-teams tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seles played for Yugoslavia in 1991 and is the first player to represent two countries in this tuneup for the Australian Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She beat Karina Habsudova 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, and teammate Jan-Michael Gambill defeated Dominik Hrbaty 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. In mixed doubles, Seles-Gambill downed Habsudova-Hrbaty 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I was so sluggish and my goal was just to wake up and get some points going, get my feet moving,” Seles said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Americans, seeded third, are in Group B with Slovakia, Russia and Belgium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seles had a more successful day than Marat Safin, the Russian ranked No. 2 in the world. The U.S. Open champion was upset by little-known Belgian Olivier Rochus 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That gave Belgium the decision over Russia in the round-robin event following Kim Clijsters’ 6-1, 6-4 win over Elena Likhovtseva. Safin and Likhovtseva teamed for a 6-3, 7-6, (3) doubles victory over Clijsters and Rochus, but the Belgians won 2-1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Seles started slowly, struggling to find her range. She faced three break points to go down 3-0 before coming back. At 1-3, she won 16 of the next 17 points to go up 5-3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I was very flat coming out. \u2026 I couldn’t find my rhythm at all,” Seles said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rochuso lost to 164th-ranked Takao Suzuki on Sunday as Belgium beat Japan to qualify for the competition. He almost decided not to make the trip to Perth after injuring his wrist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Tuesday, Australia plays defending champion South Africa, and Slovakia faces Belgium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PERTH, Australia — Monica Seles returned to the Hopman Cup after a 10-year absence Monday, leading the United States to a 3-0 victory over Slovakia in the mixed-teams tournament. Seles played for Yugoslavia in 1991 and is the first player to represent two countries in this tuneup for the Australian Open. She beat Karina Habsudova […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[59,56],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7598\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicaselessite.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}I just tried to play and enjoy,'' he said.<\/code>And in the first tournament of the year it’s good for me to play like this and to beat Safin.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n