Hopman Cup got kicked off tonight (or this morning, since its actually the morning in Australia. Crazy backwards Australians) in what is the unofficial beginning of the season. Today is hometeam Australia vs. Romania.

Superhero came flying out of the blocks, not surprisingly, and Sorana Banana looked rusty. Damn rusty. She was having trouble hitting a first serve, generating serious power into the ball, and even just putting the damn thing in between the proper lines. Sam, on the other hand, was serving bombs out wide and dictating play. First set, easily, 6-3.

Then something strange happened. The first game of the next set took some 8 or 9 minutes. Sorana had a hell of a time holding serve, but she was starting to hit the ball, and after holding, she was jacked up, fist pumping, and hitting freely. And then she REALLY started hitting the ball, and hitting in the right spot. And damn son, when she unleashes that forehand, it’s a thing of beauty, and is going to cause anyone outside of the top 10 serious trouble. The hold serve until 4-5, Banana blows a set point, but gets a couple more, and gets handed the set as Sam gets nervous and Nando’s it away on a double fault.

And from there it was pretty well Banana’s match. She was broken early in the set, broke right back. Sam was making errors, sure, she wasn’t as solid as the first set, but Sorana was starting to push the ball around and dictate. She also hit a totally dirty spinning forehand return winner. At 4-all she broke and served it out rather calmly. And did she ever want it… yeah, for an opening Hopman Cup match, but there you go. Advantage, Romania.

Rusty Lawnmower (whose COME OOOON I just relived like three times in slo-mo) is taking on Hanescu right now.