Iga Swiatek confidently overcame an initial challenge from Caroline Garcia, maintaining her impressive run before the Australian Open by securing Poland’s spot in the final of the United Cup.
The top-ranked player in the world won the match 4-6 6-1 6-1 on Saturday, improving her performance to secure a victory after France’s Garcia made a strong start.
This was the first instance in which the 22-year-old lost a set since October of last year. Interestingly, this also occurred against Garcia.
However, the Pole displayed an uncompromising side, disregarding the setback and continuing her streak of 15 consecutive matches without a loss.
Swiatek’s victory followed men’s world No 9 Hubert Hurkacz’s 6-3 7-5 defeat of Adrian Mannarino, giving Poland an unassailable 2-0 lead with the mixed doubles still to play.
Katarzyna Kawa and Jan Zielinski secured a 3-0 victory for the Polish team by winning the mixed doubles match 6-3 6-3, advancing them to the final on Sunday.
Poland will face the winner of Australia or Germany in the final after the teams face-off in Sydney later on Saturday.
“I had to make a significant mental shift because I was feeling impatient,” stated Swiatek.
I was making poor choices and I needed to be more calm.
“I returned to the match with increased focus after the break following the first set, and I am quite proud of my performance.”
Swiatek credited the slow beginning to the venue change.
During the initial rounds of the United Cup in Perth, Poland’s team had difficulty adjusting to the Ken Rosewall Arena surface, according to the current French Open champion.
“Despite the similarities on the surface, I personally felt slightly out of sync with my rhythm,” Swiatek stated.
“I realized that I needed to give my brain some time to process it.”
Excluding a challenging second set against the 22nd ranked player in the world, Mannarino, Hurkacz had a smoother performance and secured his victory in an hour and 41 minutes.
Hurkacz won 31 of 36 points when landing his first serve and bombed 15 aces past Mannarino.
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Hurkacz complimented Adrian on his strong competitive skills and acknowledged that it is challenging to play against him.
One must be patient and maintain a steady pace while competing against him on the field. I am pleased with how well I performed.
The top seeded team in the competition, Poland, has only suffered one loss throughout the entire tournament.
Last year, they made it to the semi-finals of the tournament and will feel confident facing either Germany or a strong Australian team led by Alex de Minaur and Alja Tomljanovic.
Alexander Zverev, ranked seventh in the world, is the next opponent for Alex de Minaur, who defeated Novak Djokovic in the quarter-final match on Wednesday.
However, Zverev has a 6-1 advantage in head-to-head matchups against the 12th ranked player in the world.
Zverev mentioned that the last time we played was in Rome 2022, which was a while ago.
There have been some changes. I believe he has improved greatly and is now nearing the top 10.
“He will be highly driven, and the entire Australian team will share this motivation.”
