Hubert Hurkacz and Iga Swiatek sealed Poland a spot in the quarter finals at the United Cup after a 2-1 win over Czechia at the Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney.
Tomas Machac overcame Hubert Hurkacz 7-5 3-6 6-4 after 1 hour and 56 minutes in the men’s singles match to give Czechia a 1-0 lead.
Machac broke serve in the 11 the game to win the first set 7-5. Hurkacz saved a break point in the seventh game before breaking to love in the eighth game to win the second set 6-3. Hurkacz saved a break point at 3-4 with a backhand up the line in the third set before Machac broke serve in the 10thgame to seal the third set 6-4, as Hurkacz hit a forehand long.
“In the end I was trying to be more aggressive to push myself to the court. It was great”, said Machac.
World number 2 Iga Swiatek beat Karolina Muchova 6-3 6-4 in the women’s singles match.
Muchova earned the first break with a deep return to take a 2-1 lead in the third game of the opening set. Swiatek reeled off four consecutive games to take a 5-2 lead with two breaks. The Polish player saved two break points with backhand winners, as she was serving at 5-3, and held serve at deuce to seal the first set 6-3. Swiatek earned a break in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead. Muchova broke back to draw level to 4-4, but Swiatek hit two backhands to earned her second break for 5-4. Swiatek had to save one more break point in the 10th game before sealing the win on her second match point after 1 hour and 56 minutes with a volley winner.
“Obviously I knew what’s at stake, so in tough moments I just tried to loosen up my hand and force myself to not change any movements because of any thoughts. That’s the most important thing in tennis, to try and use any intuition as much as possible and I think I did that in the last rallies”, said Swiatek.
Swiatek teamed up with Hubert Hurkacz to beat Karolina Muchova and Tomas Machac 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 in the decisive mixed doubles sealing the tie 2-1.
“Honestly I was sure they were going to play amazing tennis because they have always great teams in doubles and mixed doubles. They raised that way, but I knew that we have the game to win it. We were leading from the beginning. In the first set it got tight at the end, but I felt that we were leading anyway so in the tie-break we just used that. In the end it seemed that we had everything under control”, said Swiatek. Czechia has still a chance to earn a spot in the quarter finals by finishing as the best placed country in Sydney.
