Andy Murray cruised past Marinko Matosevic to hand Great Britain a resounding Hopman Cup victory over Australia at Perth Arena.

The last session of the round-robin competition had no bearing on the final, but Australia would have been hoping for a better start than seeing Heather Watson beat Casey Dellacqua 6-3, 6-4 in 101 minutes.

That left Matosevic with the massive job against world No.6 Murray as Australia's fourth representative named for the tournament after Nick Kyrgios pulled out just days before it started and then with Matt Ebden injuring a calf and Ben Mitchell stepping in briefly.

Matosevic was competitive with the Scot for the first half of the opening set, but had his serve broken in the eighth game and Murray served out the set 6-3.

He then cruised through the second, winning the opening four games before going on to secure the 6-3, 6-2 victory in 69 minutes.

While Great Britain failed to qualify for Saturday's final, Murray is pleased with his week in Pert,h with straight-sets singles wins over Poland's Jerzy Janowicz, France's Benoit Paire and now Matosevic.

"I think I have played well. The scorelines have been quite convincing against good players and tricky players who are big hitters of the ball," Murray said.

"Paire is quite an unpredictable guy to play against and then Janowicz and Matosevic are big and strong guys, but I felt like I neutralised a lot of their power well and moved forward, and stepped up the court well when I had the chance. It was a good few matches."

Matosevic only came to Perth after losing his first-round match at the Brisbane International to American Steve Johnson, and pulled off a win over the more fancied Paire to make his time at the Hopman Cup well and truly worthwhile.

The final was already decided before the last tie with the USA team of Serena Williams and John Isner to play Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska and Janowicz.

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic was keen to look at the positives despite suffering a surprise quarter-final exit to Ivo Karlovic at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open.

World No.1 and top seed Djokovic would have been expected to see off the challenge of Karlovic and seal his place in the last four, and he looked on course to do that after edging the first set.

However, Karlovic battled back to level the match following another tie-break and the giant Croatian then stunned Djokovic by taking the deciding set to clinch a 6-7 (2/7), 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 victory.

Rather than looking for excuses for his defeat, though, Djokovic preferred to heap praise on the big-serving Karlovic - who earlier this week became only the third man to record 9,000 aces - while also describing his own experience in Doha as "really enjoyable".

"(He is) one of the best all-time servers in tennis history," the Serbian said. "He served very well. You could expect that. I was coming into the match knowing that I will have very, very few chances.

"I was hoping that these conditions and the wind will give me some second serve opportunities. It didn't happen this way."

Djokovic added of his time in Doha: "I had plenty of matches, singles and doubles, I think six in total, so I think it's good.

"Obviously I wish I could go further at least in singles, but it's the way it is. It was a good week. It was a really enjoyable experience."

Karlovic, who was facing Djokovic for the first time in seven years, will now meet David Ferrer for a place in the final.

The fourth-seeded Spaniard had few problems seeing off Germany's Dustin Brown 6-2, 6-2.

The other semi-final pits Czech Tomas Berdych and Italian Andreas Seppi against each other after both progressed through their last-eight matches in straight sets.

Berdych, the third seed, downed 2013 champion Richard Gasquet 6-2, 6-1, while Seppi defeated Ivan Dodig 7-5, 6-4.

Roger Federer will challenge Grigor Dimitrov for a place in the final of the Brisbane International after brushing aside home hopeful James Duckworth in 41 minutes.

The Swiss world No.2 - last year's runner-up at the tournament - overcame the challenge of wildcard John Millman in the last 16 and followed up that victory with a convincing 6-0, 6-1 triumph over Sydney's Duckworth.

Bulgarian Dimitrov, the fourth seed, reached the semi-finals by ousting Martin Klizan 6-3, 6-4.

The other last-four showdown sees second seed Kei Nishikori tackle Milos Raonic. The Japanese dispatched Bernard Tomic 6-0, 6-4, but Canada's Raonic needed three sets to beat Sam Groth 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 7-6 (7/2).

In the women's draw, Ana Ivanovic booked her place in the final by edging Varvara Lepchenko 7-6 (7/2), 6-4.

Serbia's world No.7 will contest the trophy against either top seed Maria Sharapova or Elina Svitolina.

Former world No.1s Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams will face each other in the final of ASB Classic in Auckland after recording contrasting semi-final wins.

Williams, the third seed, cruised into the title match with a 6-0, 6-3 mauling of fellow-American Lauren Davis in a match that was over in just 67 minutes.

Top seed Wozniacki had it considerably tougher against Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, though, as she was taken to three sets in an encounter that lasted more than two-and-a-half hours.

Fourth-seeded Czech Zahlavova Strycova claimed the first set and led 2-0 in the second, but Wozniacki battled back to take the win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The Dane said: "I'm definitely just happy to get through this one. I think she played really well. For me it was about just staying in the match.

"I didn't start off too well, I didn't really feel the depth of the ball that I wanted to. But I started playing better as it went on, and I think she did too. I just had to kind of get going out there."

Williams, last year's runner-up in Auckland, has beaten Wozniacki in all five of their previous meetings without dropping a set.

Great Britain's Fed Cup team have been drawn in a group with Ukraine, Turkey and Liechtenstein for the Europe/Africa Zone Group I tournament in Budapest next month.

Captain Judy Murray named her team earlier this week, with British No.1 Heather Watson joined by Johanna Konta and doubles team Anna Smith and Jocelyn Rae for the round-robin event, which starts on February 4.

Ukraine are likely to provide Britain with their toughest match as they boast two top-100 players in world No.28 Elina Svitolina and 88th-ranked Lesia Tsurenko.

Watson is currently ranked 50th while Konta, who briefly broke into the top 100 last year, sits 146th.

Neither Turkey nor Liechtenstein should present too many problems for Murray's team, who are again without Laura Robson as she continues to work her way back to full fitness following wrist surgery.

Should Britain win Group B, they would go forward to a play-off against the winners of Group C, which could well pit them against Belarus and former world No.1 Victoria Azarenka.

The winners of the play-off then progress to the World Group II play-offs in April.

Britain reached that stage in both 2012 and 2013, but lost to Sweden and Argentina respectively.