By Heather McNeill
The pulling power of Swiss tennis great Roger Federer helped the Hopman Cup attract a record crowd to Perth Arena on Monday night.
The stadium was packed with 13,684 fans to watch the 17 times grand-slam champion and doubles teammate Belinda Bencic defeat Great Britain in a 3-0 clean sweep.
It follows more than 6000 people turning up to watch Federer train on Thursday and Premier Colin Barnett labelling the 35-year-old a major draw card for the tournament.
Monday night's crowd just beat the previous attendance record for the Hopman Cup of 13,509, which was set in 2013, when former world number ones Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic from Serbia defeated Australia's Bernard Tomic and Ashleigh Barty, 2-1.
Federer had not played in Perth since 2002 when he arrived as a fresh-faced 20-year-old who was making his way up the international tennis rankings.
Fifteen years on he has won 88 titles and risen to become arguably the world's greatest tennis player, holding the number one men's world ranking for a total of 302 weeks - the most of any male player.
WA Labor leader Mark McGowan on Sunday announced his party would move to stamp out ticket scalpers if elected to government by fining those who seek to rip off "ordinary people and families trying to have fun".
"Virtually every other state has put in place laws to stop scalping and what they do is, for major events...they declare tickets can't be sold for more than the original price plus on-sale costs," he said.
Below: Watch Roger Federer during his debut at the Hopman Cup in 2001.