By VIVIENNE CHRISTIE

You might have been excused for thinking that Jelena Dokic wasn't going to have a huge impact on Hopman Cup XI. The 341st- ranked Sydneysider was mixing with some of the biggest names in tennis and if her opening round match was any indication she registered only one game against South Africa's Amanda Coetzer she still had some lessons to learn.

But Dokic didn't prove the type to dwell on a loss. She quickly rebounded to win crucial matches against players ranked hundreds of places higher than her, in the process steering Australia to its first Hopman Cup victory and becoming one of the most talked-about schoolgirls in Australia.

When Australia suffered a surprise defeat against South Africa in its opening match of the Hopman Cup. Mark Phiippoussis didn't appear too concerned. "I'm sticking around," he enthused. "We are going to have fun and it's going to be great." And what prophetic words those proved to be. Less than a week later the pair became the first Australians to hold aloft the Hopman Cup trophy.

Their run to the final was made all the more exciting by Dokic's stunning upsets of Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Sandrine Testud. The Australian took little more than an hour to topple Sanchez Vicario 6-3 6-2 and it was a similar story when she defeated Testud in straight sets.

Despite the fact that Testud was clearly suffering from some form of neck injury, there was no denying the younger woman's brilliance. She took the first set 6-1 in just 25 minutes, and when Testud fought back in the second set, she was silenced by Dokic's amazing speed and groundstrokes.

For Philippoussis, it wa all the inspiration he needed to guide the Australians to their place in the final. While he was merely impressive in his earlier defeat of a racked Carlos Moya, he was nothing short of sensational when he took on Guillaume Raoux of France. In a match which lasted just 45 minutes, Philippoussis fired nine aces and returned with amazing precision.

He modestly conceded later that he was "in the zone" but, like everyone, was blown away by the form of his team-mate. "Sitting there watching Jelena was something special," he said. "I had to do something special to get noticed." If there was any moment that Dokic appeared to falter, it was possibly in the second set of the final. After disposing of Sweden's Asa Carlsson easily in the first set, she took the match to a tie-break in the second.

Philippoussis, matched against Jonas Bjorkman, also needed a second set tie break to secure the win. "Jonas is always a tough opponent," he said later "The guy has got great hands, he is extremely tough and puts a lot of pressure on you.

For the Swedes, it was possibly sweet enough just to have made the final. With defending champions the Slovak Republic, as well as USA and Switzerland in their group, they had never realistically been expected to progress that far.

Carlsson, ranked 92 at the end of 1998, was pitted against the likes of Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis, the top two women in the world. Carlsson failed to take a set in either of those matches, nor did she perform well against Karma Habsudova of the Slovak Republic, falling 3-6, 3-6.

By contrast, Bjorkman did not drop a set in any of his matches against Jan-Michael Gambill, Ivo Heuberger or Karol Kucera - nor did the Swedes falter in any of their live mixed doubles rubbers. Possibly one of the most eagerly-awaited matches of the tournament was the clash of the top two women. Hingis keen to keep her record of never losing a singles match at the tournament intact won the contest easily, but Davenport wasn't feeling any great threat to her top spot.

"I think maybe everyone made a bigger deal out of it than what it was," she commented afterwards. "Martina is playing great here and I have nothing to be really ashamed about ... I will just try and get better before I play her again.

Perhaps the disappointment of the tournament was the fact that top seeds Spain were forced to withdraw because of Carlos Moya's battle with the `flu, but as always, the wealth of talent which had assembled provided plenty of top-class entertainment for the record crowds which flocked to the Burswood Dome.

South Africa, embarking on their seventh consecutive Hopman Cup, once again started favorite, while the French pairing of Guillaume Raoux and Sandrine Testud were popular qualifiers. But the stars of the show were without doubt the Aussies, particularly Dokic, who created a frenzy of excitement wherever she went.

So much so that her more experienced team-mate called for some calm. "All I can say is leave her alone," he stressed. "Let her do what she is doing She just loves the game at the moment, that's why she is doing well."

Wise words again for she did, after all, show some signs of being a normal teenager. How was she going to spend her $100,000 prizemoney?

"I haven't thought about that," she giggled. "Shopping!"