Nick Kyrgios and Daria Gavrilova had singles wins over Ukraine to lead Australia Green to the Hopman Cup, the country’s first title in the mixed teams event in 17 years.
Gavrilova’s 6-4, 7-6 (6) victory over Elina Svitolina gave Australia a 1-0 lead before Kyrgios clinched the title with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Alexandr Dolgopolov.
Australia’s only previous Hopman Cup title came in 1999, when Mark Philippoussis and Jelena Dokic beat Swedish pair of Jonas Bjorkman and Asa Carlsson.
Kyrgios won all four of his singles matches and combined with Gavrilova for an unbeaten mixed doubles run.
Against France on Friday night, Australia Green was down a set point in the mixed doubles. If they had lost, Britain’s Andy Murray and Heather Watson would have qualified for the final.
But Gavrilova made a clutch cross-court volley before Kyrgios helped seal the 2-1 win in which the Australian team also faced a match point in the match tiebreaker.
Gavrilova trailed 6-1 in the second-set tiebreaker on Saturday before reeling off seven straight points to secure victory.
Kyrgios took the first set in 26 minutes before securing an early break in the second set.
“It’s pretty special. Especially me and Dasha (Daria) — we grew up together in juniors,” Kyrgios said.