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No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek won her singles match Saturday after Hubert Hurkacz gave her team the early lead over France to advance Poland to the United Cup mixed teams final.
Swiatek won 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 over Caroline Garcia while ATP No. 9-ranked Hurkacz’s 6-3, 7-5 defeat of Adrian Mannarino gave them an unassailable 2-0 lead. For good measure, Poland won the mixed doubles for a final 3-0 score line.
Germany also powered into the final with a nerve-wracking 2-1 win over host Australia.
Swiatek said she need to make a “big adjustment” after her opening-set loss to Garcia.
“I was making bad decisions, and I needed to be more composed,” Swiatek said. “After the break after the first set, I came back more focused, so I’m pretty proud of myself.”
Hurkacz won 31 of 36 points on his first serve and had 15 aces.
“He’s really difficult to play against. I was just fighting for every point, and I was able stay positive and was really resilient today,” Hurkacz said.
Top-seeded Poland lost just one match in the group stage of the tournament in Perth before beating China 3-0 to reach the final four for the second straight year.
The second semifinal eventually finished around 2:20 a.m. local time, when Germany’s mixed doubles duo of Alexander Zverev and Laura Siegemund got the better of Matthew Ebden and Storm Hunter in the decider after the teams split the singles.
Angelique Kerber had given Germany the lead when she beat Ajla Tomljanovic, but Australia struck back when Alex de Minaur, roared on by the home support, came from behind to defeat Zverev 5-7 6-3 6-4.
Zverev had only 25 minutes between the singles and doubles matches, but that did not stop him and Siegemund from beating the Australian pair 7-6 (2), 6-7 (2), 15-13 in a contest where both sides saved several match points.
“After the singles match, it was obviously disappointing, but I thought the level of the match was extremely high,” said an exhausted Zverev, who was visibly cramping up after five hours on court. “We were still in the tie and we still had a chance to win it, and I’m happy that we did that today.”
Kerber had recovered from a set down and saved two match points to beat Tomljanovic 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7) for her first singles win since her 18-month maternity break.
“I just tried to play as many matches as possible before going to Melbourne. I tried to learn from my last three matches,” Kerber said. “Coming out here and winning such a tough battle means a lot to me. It means a lot to have a match like this before going to the Australian Open.”
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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