Serbia beats Taiwan in Hopman Cup

PERTH:

Jelena Jankovic and Novak Djokovic won their singles matches against Taiwan on Sunday to give top-seeded Serbia a winning start at the Hopman Cup mixed teams tennis tournament.

Jankovic defeated Hsieh Su-wei 6-4, 6-4 while Djokovic, who struggled with a back injury in the second set, rallied to beat Lu Yen-hsun 7-5, 2-6, 6-3.

With the match clinched, Serbia claimed a 3-0 win when Jankovic and Djokovic beat Hsieh and Lu 3-6, 6-2, 10-8 (super tiebreaker) in mixed doubles.

France and Argentina played later on Sunday.

Trailing 2-0 after dropping her opening service game, Jankovic won four straight games en route to winning the first set. Jankovic won three straight games in the second set to win her debut match at the tournament.

''It was my first match of the year, after two months off, and I didn't expect myself to play my best tennis,'' Jankovic said. ''I'm not that happy with the way I played but I will try to get my rhythm again.''

Djokovic won the 75-minute first set after Lu fought off five set points.

Hampered by a back injury that he received treatment on during the second set, Djokovic trailed 4-0 before dropping the set. But Djokovic bounced back to take a 3-0 lead in the final set and secure the match.

Each team plays three times in the round-robin format, with the top team in each group advancing to Friday's final.