Genie Bouchard wins again, Vasek Pospisil goes 3-0 in singles at Hopman Cup

With each match at the Hopman Cup, Genie Bouchard found her bearings.

She built upon her shocking victory over a somnabulant Serena Williams Tuesday with a more routine 6-3, 6-4 win over Flavia Pennetta of Italy Thursday.

It was a much better match – a more even contest, and a hard-hitting one. And despite a few more issues with her serve, the 20-year-old came through fairly routinely.

Pennetta double-faulted to give Bouchard the break that allowed her to serve for the first set.

The key in the second set was the first game. Pennetta had love-40 on Bouchard's serve, but the Canadian managed to come back and hold, setting the tone. Pennetta then double-faulted again to hand Bouchard another break, which was all she needed.

When she served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, Bouchard was solid. She got every single first serve in with the exception of one, which was just a few millimetres out. A couple of them were crushed by Pennetta, turning a 30-love lead into a more perilous 30-all. And Bouchard saved a break point in the process. But she showed more than a few flashes of her old confidence.

And, in what sadly seems to be becoming a "thing", Bouchard had to take a selfie with the on-court interviewer.

Teammate Vasek Pospisil backed up Bouchard's win with a 6-0, 6-3 dismantling of Fabio Fognini, whose level of commitment in this match mirrored that of Williams two days ago. The Italian, who also is Pennetta's boyfriend and certainly has a reputation for not always giving it all, has been feeling ill, lightheaded and queasy, all week long.

While he might be kicking himself a little for getting lulled to sleep a little in the second set as his opponent played possum, he went undefeated in his three singles matches this week.

Even though the Hopman Cup is not an official tournament, that's just about the best start to the season Pospisil could probably have sketched out. "I had a good off-season, playing pretty well now and hope I can take that into the next couple of weeks," he said.

The mixed doubles actually meant something, even though the Canadians had clinched the match. Only one country from their group, which includes the Czechs, Americans and Italians, can advance to Saturday's final. And Canada needed to sweep all three matches – with Pospisil, who had never played mixed doubles before this week, still looking for his first mixed-doubles win, ever – to have a shot.

They lost, 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 in the match tiebreak, and thus were eliminated. Pospisil is probably thinking that mixed doubles is probably not going to be his thing going forward.

Pennetta, who has been a No. 1 ranked player in women's doubles, was the best player on the court. And Fognini came through in the end.

Pospisil is headed to play a big warmup event in Sydney next week while Bouchard is skipping it, planning to head straight to Melbourne to get ready for the Australian Open.

On the other side of the country in Brisbane, compatriot Milos Raonic opened his season in singles, defeating Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 6-4 on the strength of 17 aces. Raonic, teamed with Bernard Tomic, already posted a win in the doubles. He and Tomic were beaten 6-4, 7-5 by Jamie Murray and John Peers in the quarter-finals Thursday.