Tennis-Third time lucky as Poland beat Switzerland to win United Cup

SYDNEY, Jan 11 (Reuters) – Poland battled past Switzerland 2-1 in the United Cup final on Sunday to banish the pain of title-round defeats in the previous two editions and secure a long-awaited maiden triumph in the season-opening mixed-team competition.

Hubert Hurkacz continued his resurgence in his first event back after a near seven-month injury layoff by beating veteran Stan Wawrinka 6-3 3-6 6-3 to level the tie at 1-1 after Iga Swiatek lost 3-6 6-0 6-3 to an inspired Belinda Bencic.

The mixed doubles duo of Katarzyna Kawa and Jan Zielinski then downed Bencic and Jakub Paul 6-4 6-3 in the deciding match to trigger jubilant scenes in Sydney, where Poland finally converted their dominance into silverware.

“We’ve finally made it. Third time lucky,” Swiatek said.

“We worked hard … I want to thank the team. This year it was such a team effort, I really felt the support. Even though my singles performances weren’t perfect, you got my spirits up and you all believed until the end.”

Victory capped a superb campaign for Poland, who beat last year’s champions the United States in the semi-finals, and set up Hurkacz to carry momentum into his singles campaign at the Australian Open that begins on January 18.

Six-times Grand Slam champion Swiatek heads into the year’s opening major at Melbourne Park with back-to-back defeats after losing to Bencic on Sunday and Coco Gauff in the semi-finals, though she will remain among the top contenders.

ENTERTAINING CONTEST

Swiatek’s defeat by Gauff looked to be firmly in the rear-view mirror when she shot out of the blocks against Bencic, the 24-year-old breaking early and going up 3-0 in the first set in the most entertaining contest of the day.

Bencic dragged herself back into the match but Swiatek went ahead 5-3 with her third break and held serve in the tight ninth game, before clinching the opening stanza with a huge backhand winner down the line.

But Swiatek’s game fell flat thereafter as Bencic powered through the second set without dropping a game and took a 4-1 lead in the decider as the crowd at the Ken Rosewall Arena geared up for a major upset.

Having squandered two match points at 5-2, Bencic closed out the contest on her own delivery for only her second victory over Swiatek that handed Switzerland a 1-0 lead in the tie.

Playing in his final season on tour, Wawrinka pushed Hurkacz hard to force a deciding set in the second singles encounter but the 40-year-old was unable to grab the victory that would have clinched the tie.

“He’s definitely an inspiration,” Hurkacz said about the three-times major champion.

“I grew up watching him play, compete and win so much. His game style is really powerful. The shots he pulls off sometimes, you can really admire them even when you are on the other side of the net.”

Hurkacz was equally impressive on the day, sending down 18 aces and saving eight out of the nine break points he faced in the match to set up the decider, where the experience of Kawa and Zielinski helped Poland prevail.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in BengaluruEditing by Christian Radnedge)