A statement victory for Coco Gauff over her great rival Iga Swiatek proved to be insufficient to the American’s hopes of leading her team into the final of the United Cup. Poland showed their depth in an excellent team performance to close out a 2-1 win over the United States at the Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney.
Poland, who finished runners-up to the US last year, exacted their revenge courtesy of the doubles specialists Jan Zielinski and Katarzyna Kawa, who maintained their unbeaten run in the competition by defeating Christian Harrison and Gauff 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) in the decisive third rubber. Poland face Switzerland in the final on Sunday after the Swiss defeated Belgium 2-1.
The tie opened with another victory for Hubert Hurkacz, who continued his impressive comeback from injury by defeating the world No 9, Taylor Fritz, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (2). Gauff put together a brilliant performance against Swiatek, winning 6-4, 6-2 to register her fourth consecutive win over the six-time grand slam champion.
This has evolved into one of the game’s most fascinating rivalries. Gauff is 21 and Swiatek 24, yet the pair have already faced each other on 16 occasions. For a long time, this seemed to be a fatal match-up for Gauff as Swiatek won their first seven meetings in straight sets and 11 of their first 12 contests, including the 2022 French Open final and for three consecutive years at Roland Garros.
However, Gauff has turned the rivalry on its head. She is the first player to register four consecutive straight-sets wins over the Pole, reducing the deficit in their head-to-head to 5-11.
While this result may prove to be relevant to their future battles, with Gauff’s confidence growing each time she faces Swiatek, it did not play a decisive role in the tie. Poland have now reached three consecutive finals at the United Cup, but while their previous two runs were almost entirely due to Swiatek’s singular brilliance, this time it was her teammates that stepped up.
Swiatek had been expected to compete in the mixed doubles at the beginning of the tournament, but Kawa and Zielinski, the latter a two-time mixed doubles grand slam champion, have formed a formidable partnership. They closed out the final rubber, holding their nerve in two tight tiebreaks.
Hurkacz is a former world No 8, but he has been off the tour for seven months after undergoing surgery on a chronic knee injury. He has returned with two top 10 wins in his first week back, beating the world No 3, Alexander Zverev, in his opening match. They will line up against a Swiss team that has reached the final in large part thanks to a series of supreme performances from Belinda Bencic, who is unbeaten in her eight singles and mixed doubles matches this week.
Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner enjoyed a leisurely start to the new season as the Spaniard beat his biggest rival 7-5, 7-6 (8) in an exhibition event in South Korea.
Recently, they have opted to forgo official competition in the run up to the Australian Open and this year they chose to play a lucrative, low-intensity exhibition event. The two favourites for Melbourn ehead to Melbourne, where they will train for the first time on Sunday evening.
In Brisbane, Aryna Sabalenka continued her imperious start to the season as she calmly navigated her way past Karolina Muchova 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final. The world No 1 will face Marta Kostyuk after the Ukrainian dismantled Jessica Pegula, the fourth seed, 6-0, 6-3. This was Kostyuk’s third top-10 win of the week after victories over Amanda Anisimova and Mirra Andreeva.
