Murray & Robson form Hopman team

By Jonathan Overend
BBC 5 live tennis correspondent

Murray & Robson will warm up for Australian Open in Perth

Andy Murray and Laura Robson are set to form a surprise partnership in the Hopman Cup, the annual international team competition in Perth, next year.

The pairing is close to being confirmed and would spark considerable attention for an event which has traditionally struggled to attract British interest.

Great Britain's last appearance was in 1992, when Jeremy Bates and Jo Durie lost in the first round.

Each match features one men's singles, one women's singles and a doubles.

The 2010 Hopman Cup begins on 2 January, and playing in it would be a dramatic change to Murray's normal schedule in that first week of the new season.

For the past two years he has played, and won, the ATP tournament in Doha, Qatar.

But in 2010, he is expected to head straight to Perth and stay in Australia until the end of the first Grand Slam tournament of the year, in Melbourne, possibly playing the ATP event in Sydney the week in between.

Organisers have already confirmed that Australia and Russia have entered, with Lleyton Hewitt joining Samatha Stosur and Elena Demetieva teaming up with Igor Andreev.

Other regular entries include teams from USA, Serbia and the Czech Republic. The Slovak Republic were the 2009 champions, while Serena Williams was part of the winning USA team in 2008.