VOA标准英语2008年-USA Wins Hopman Cup in Perth

By VOA Sports
Washington, DC
04 January 2008

The U.S. team of Mardy Fish and Serena Williams has beaten top-seeded Serbia to win the Hopman Cup mixed team tennis competition in Perth, Australia. It was the fifth time an American team has won the event in its 20-year history.

An upper right leg injury that has hindered¹ Serbia's Jelena Jankovic the past few days gave Williams the opening singles match in a walkover.

Novak Djokovic of Serbia evened the best-of-three match final with a three-set win over American Mardy Fish (6-2, 6-7, 7-6). Jankovic did take the court for the deciding mixed doubles match, but the Americans rallied² from a 4-1 deficit³ to win in straight sets, 7-6, 6-2.

For the win, Williams and Fish share $240,000 in prize money. Each player also receives two Argyle diamond encrusted tennis balls worth $35,000 each.

Because of her injury, Jankovic had pulled out of both her singles matches on the previous two days, and in both cases she came back to win the clinching⁴ mixed doubles match with Djokovic, against both France and Argentina.

The Hopman Cup is a key warm-up for the first major tournament of the year, the Australian Open, which starts January 14th in Melbourne.

Some information for this report was provided⁵ by AFP, AP.

1 hindered   

阻碍，妨碍( hinder的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• That hindered him from going further. 那使他不能继续向前。
• The crowd hindered him from leaving. 人群挡着他，使他走不开。

2 rallied   

恢复( rally的过去式和过去分词 )； 价格回升； 集合起来； 嘲笑

参考例句：

• Has the child rallied from her high fever yet? 这个女孩的高烧退了吗？
• The enemy's forces rallied, and made a fresh attack on the town. 敌军重新调集兵力，对该城发动了又一次进攻。

3 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

4 clinching   

v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的现在分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议）

参考例句：

• Joe gets clinching evidence of the brains role when he dreams. 乔做梦时得到了大脑发生作用的决定性依据。 来自辞典例句
• Clinching, wrestling, pushing, or seizing, without attempting a throw or other technique. 抱，扭摔，推或抓而没有摔或其它的技术。 来自互联网

5 provided   

conj.假如，若是；adj.预备好的，由...供给的

参考例句：

• Provided it's fine we will have a pleasant holiday.如果天气良好，我们的假日将过得非常愉快。
• I will come provided that it's not raining tomorrow.如果明天不下雨，我就来。