Swiatek defeats Rybakina and sends Poland to the United Cup final for the second year in a row

Iga Swiatek led Poland to a second successive United Cup final by beating one of their fiercest rivals in the semi-final in Sydney on Saturday.

United Cup: Results | Pulls | Order of play

In a clash between top 10 players and Grand Slam winners, Swiatek defeated Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina 7-6(5), 6-4, securing an insurmountable 2-0 lead for 2024 runner-up Hubert Hurkacz had put Swiatek in the queue by giving Poland a 1-0 lead with a quick win over Alexander Shevchenko.

“I think this was the first time I was able to win with Elena on a faster surface, so that means a lot to me,” Swiatek said on court after her win. “I definitely didn’t have a good start, I felt like I was on the handbrake a bit.”

“I really wanted to work and change the momentum and I’m glad I managed to do that at the last possible chance in the first set. I kind of told myself that I won’t miss again, and I’m happy because it was definitely tough against Elena.

Rybakina, one of the rare players to regularly trouble five-time major champion Swiatek, came into Saturday’s game having won four of their six previous meetings. In fact, Rybakina’s impressive low blow in the early stages once again troubled Swiatek, who missed several forehands to give the Kazakh a 5-3 lead.

After overcoming another deficit against Rybakina, Swiatek shifted into gear, accelerating through rallying groundstrokes and coming back at 5-5 on her fourth break point of the game. Swiatek then had two set points at 6:5, but Rybakina fought through a 13-minute game, held on and made it to the tiebreak.

After the first eight points of the breaker went to the returner, Rybakina fired back-to-back long backhand points to give Swiatek another pair of set points. Swiatek took advantage of her fourth chance after 72 minutes and narrowly ended the first set.

After missing two early break points in the second set, Swiatek finally took control by breaking Rybakina on touchdown to take a 4-3 lead. Swiatek had to use exceptional defense to save a break point in the final game and the former world No. 1 held on to secure the win. Swiatek now holds a singles record of 12-1 in the United Cup.

In the opening match of the day, Hurkacz continued his short- and long-term redemption in the United Cup by dismissing Shevchenko 6-3, 6-2.

After losing both singles matches in group play against Casper Ruud and Tomas Machac, Hurkacz backed up his quarterfinal win over Billy Harris with a 58-minute victory over the Kazakhstanis.

Last year, Hurkacz took two championship points in the tournament final against Alexander Zverev, but then saw the current world No. 2 rally to a comeback win and then team with Laura Siegemund to beat him and Swiatek in the deciding mixed doubles.

“The last game here gave me a little confidence and I played better every single game,” Hurkacz said.

After struggling with the force of the shot in his losses to Ruud and Machac, world No. 16 Hurkacz was the one dictating from the baseline against Shevchenko. He was also dominant on serve, putting 76 percent of his first balls into play and winning 80 percent of first serve points and 73 percent of second serve points.

Shevchenko played his best tennis early in the second set when he did better at moving Hurkacz from the middle of the court, but after missing a 30-all chance in the fourth game, he made three unforced errors to stay in the match to reach the break the following game and never recovered.

Hurkacz now leads Shevchenko 4-0 in the Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

At the end of the duel, Poland managed a clean sweep by also winning the mixed doubles. Maja Chwalinska and Jan Zielinski made it 3-0 for Poland, defeating Zhibek Kulambayeva and Shevchenko 6-4, 6-1 in 61 minutes.