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Donna Vekic scored her second straight-sets United Cup win in as many matches, defeating Alize Cornet 6-4, 6-3 to give Croatia an early lead on France in the last Group F tie in Perth.

It was Vekic's second win in a row against the Frenchwoman on Australian soil: the pair had notched one win apiece against each other, but their most recent encounter had gone to Vekic 6-4, 6-2 in the second round of the 2020 Australian Open.

The straightforward scoreline belied the tightness of the contest, a classic stylistic contrast between power and defence that saw the pair repeatedly embroiled in multi-deuce tussles. Teeing off with her forehand at every opportunity, Vekic landed 34 winners compared to Cornet's 13 -- but the latter was not as watertight as she could have been, also committing 20 unforced errors.

The key to Vekic's win was the 22-year-old's resilience in coming through the most difficult moments of the match. She chased down a Cornet dropshot to seize the first break of the match for 2-1, then fended off two break points to consolidate her lead.

Up a double break at 4-1, Vekic had to fend off a valiant comeback attempt from Cornet, who held four break points to level at 4-4. But Vekic navigated through seven deuces for a crucial hold and went on to close out the set as Cornet sent a backhand long.

World No.1 Iga Swiatek powered past World No. 12 Belinda Bencic to give Poland an early 1-0 lead over Switzerland, winning 6-3, 7-6(3) at the United Cup in Brisbane. But Marc-Andrea Huesler quickly struck back to level the tie at 1-1.

After the lefty's 6-3, 6-2 victory against Daniel Michalski in the No. 2 men's singles match, the tie moved to Tuesday with all to play for. The winner of the tie will advance to the City Finals to face either Italy or Brazil out of Group E. 

Coming off a 6-1, 6-3 win over Yulia Putintseva, Swiatek once again unleashed her baseline dominance to earn her second career win over Bencic. The Pole came out with a clear eye towards holding her position on the baseline and dominating with her forehand and court coverage, and the 21-year-old executed her plan to near-perfection.

"I'm a perfectionist but I'm really happy with my performance today because Belinda is playing really fast, taking the ball really early, so it's a totally different rhythm," Swiatek said. "On this fast surface it's really, really hard."

Swiatek earned her first break of the match in the fourth game to earn a 3-1 lead, but Bencic quickly adjusted her return position to get the break back three games later. But the most dominant returner in the women's game proved her worth immediately, breaking Bencic to 5-3 and holding serve to close out an entertaining 41-minute set.

Alex de Minaur delivered a stunning performance under the lights in Sydney Monday when he overcame World No. 2 Rafael Nadal 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 to give Team Australia a 1-0 lead against Team Spain in Group D at the United Cup.

With a capacity crowd watching on, the 23-year-old rallied from a set-and-a-break down to earn the biggest win of his career by Pepperstone ATP Ranking after two hours and 44 minutes.

In a thrilling encounter, De Minaur showed an abundance of grit and quality to delight his raucous home supporters. The World No. 24 scampered around the baseline to hang in rallies, shortening his backswing off his groundstrokes to take away time from Nadal and turn the tables. With his statement victory, the 23-year-old improved to 1-3 in his ATP Head2Head series against Nadal.

De Minaur, who lost against Briton Cameron Norrie in his opening match of the season, has now earned eight Top 10 wins in his career.

Nadal, who also fell to Norrie at the mixed-teams event, tasted success on Australian soil last year, winning an ATP 250 title in Melbourne before he lifted his second Australian Open trophy. However, he is still searching for his first win of the new season.

Stefanos Tsitsipas stepped up at a crucial moment at the United Cup on Monday in Perth, where the ATP World No. 4 downed David Goffin 6-3, 6-2 to draw Team Greece level with Team Belgium in a decisive Group A clash.

Despite struggling to find his best level early in his first tour-level meeting with Goffin since 2019, the Greek accelerated away in the second set as some precise serving and clean groundstrokes carried him to an ultimately comfortable 78-minute victory.

“I enjoyed it out there, it was really nice,” said Tsitsipas after the match. “I was able to play some of my best tennis towards the end, being consistent with serve and return.

“I had a bit of difficulty getting the rhythm on my serve at the very beginning of the match, but I figured it out throughout the match and managed to save some of the break points with some good serves.”

Team Greece now requires just one win from the three remaining matches in the tie. They will hope WTA No. 6 Maria Sakkari can get the job done early in the first match scheduled for Tuesday in Perth, where she takes on Team Belgium’s WTA No. 29 Elise Mertens.

Alexei Popyrin earned the third Top 10 win of his career on Monday when he upset World No. 6 Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 7-6(5) to reach the second round at the Adelaide International 1.

After coming through qualifying, the Australian quickly found his range, hammering the ball off both wings to take time away from the Canadian, who was competing for the first time this season.

Popyrin struck 11 aces and rallied from 1-4 in the second set, holding his nerve in the second-set tie-break to advance after one hour and 53 minutes in his first ATP Head2Head meeting against Auger-Aliassime. The World No. 120, who has also earned Top 10 victories against Dominic Thiem and Stefanos Tsitsipas, will next face American Marcos Giron.

Auger-Aliassime held a 60-27 record in 2022, lifting four tour-level titles. However, the 22-year-old was unable to find his best level, misfiring at key moments in his first match of the year.

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World No. 27 Martina Trevisan fought off an inspired performance from World No. 321 Malene Helgo to deliver an early 1-0 lead for Italy over Norway on Day 5 of the United Cup in Brisbane. The 29-year-old Italian needed more than three hours to dispatch the Norwegian, winning 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 to post her first win of the season.

Lorenzo Musetti will look to extend Italy's lead in the second singles match of the day when he faces Viktor Durasovic. 

Having defeated Brazil 3-2 in its opening tie, Italy needs a victory over Norway to advance to the Brisbane City Finals. If Norway can engineer an upset over the fifth seeds, Brazil will finish at the top of Group E and advance to Wednesday's City Finals.

Helgo, who made her WTA Tour debut in her opening loss to Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia, gave the heavily favoured Italians a scare. Behind her phenomenal ball-striking from the baseline, the 23-year-old played well above her sub-300 ranking to build an early 5-2 lead over Trevisan. 

But the 2022 French Open semi-finalist dug in to pull off a gritty comeback to take the opening set. Trevisan used her physicality and court vision to extend the points and shrink the court for Helgo, who began to misfire under pressure. The Italian saved two set points en route to running off five consecutive games to take the first set.

The first match of the season for Tomislav Brkic and Gonzalo Escobar will certainly be a memorable one. The unseeded duo eliminated Novak Djokovic and Vasek Pospisil 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 to reach the second round of the Adelaide International 1.

The standing-room-only crowd backed Djokovic, with several fans waving Serbian flags and encouraging the No. 1 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings. But Brkic and Escobar remained calm under pressure, saving six of the seven break points they faced in their one-hour, 29-minute victory.

Djokovic and Pospisil had their share of high moments in the clash, including an impressive volleying display early in the second set, which led to a team chest bump. But they fell behind early in the Match Tie-break and never recovered.

This was Djokovic's first doubles match since last year's Laver Cup, where he partnered Matteo Berrettini past Alex de Minaur and Jack Sock. The World No. 1 will now turn his focus to his first singles match of the year against Frenchman Constant Lestienne.

The tennis court can feel like a lonely place for players at times. Out there with no place to hide, singles matches are battles between two individuals who give it their all to try and earn valuable wins and ranking points on the ATP Tour and Hologic WTA Tour.

This week at the United Cup the stage is different, though, with Team Zones in the corners of the stadium courts. The innovation allows captains and players to cheer each other on, with teammates supporting their star who is stepping between the lines.

Team France started its United Cup campaign with a 5-0 victory against Team Argentina on Friday in Perth. French captain Edouard Roger-Vasselin and WTA star Caroline Garcia believe the atmosphere created on the sidelines played an important role in its opening win.

“Most of the time we are alone on court with our staff. Now we know we have the whole team together,” Roger-Vasselin said. “Five, six, seven, eight people are cheering for us every point. So, it gives us a lot of good energy.”

“I think it's great,” Garcia added. “We are here because we love to play tennis. We like to play for our country. To do it all together, it's a really great opportunity.”

Taylor Fritz fired Team United States into a 1-0 lead against Team Germany at the United Cup Monday when he moved past World No. 12 Alexander Zverev 6-1, 6-4 in Sydney.

In a dominant display on Ken Rosewall Arena, the World No. 9 produced a strong serving performance, winning 96 per cent (26/27) of points behind his first delivery. He outmanoeuvred Zverev with his accurate ballstriking, pulling the two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion around the court throughout the 64-minute clash.

The 25-year-old raced out of the blocks, winning the first five games as he stepped inside the baseline to ruthlessly finish points. He then kept up his intensity in the second set to defeat Zverev, who was competing for just the second time since June when he tore three ligaments in his right ankle during his Roland Garros semi-final clash against Rafael Nadal.

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So much for easing into the new year.

In his first match of the season, Stefanos Tsitsipas found himself in a rollicking match with Grigor Dimitrov at the United Cup. It was, appropriately, decided in a third-set tiebreak.

“I stayed calm, I stayed well composed,” Tsitsipas said after his win. “In these moments, you have just got to stay in the moment. You cannot start predicting or thinking about the future. I managed that extremely well. I was able to serve big first serves. I didn’t let myself get back on defence, very rarely, and these moments define me.”

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Indeed, they do. For that is how Tsitsipas carved out a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(4) victory, which helped stake top-seeded Greece to a 4-1 win over Bulgaria in Perth. It was an exceptionally clean match, with Tsitsipas saving eight of nine break points and winning just two more points than the determined Dimitrov.

Daniil Medvedev is eager to open his 2023 season with some tough matchups against top opponents at the Adelaide International I — but he'll need to navigate a loaded draw at the ATP 250 to get those matches under his belt.

Seeded third, Medvedev is joined in the Adelaide field by fellow 2022 Nitto ATP Finals competitors Novak Djokovic, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Andrey Rublev, as well as Turin alternate Holger Rune.

"It's definitely good," he said of the deep field, "because first tournament of the year, if you manage to win some matches, that's good, because you're going to play good opponents. It's always good to get matches before the first Slam.

"It's a really strong tournament. Everybody knew it before coming here. Really strong draw, so everybody needs to be at their best, and we're definitely going to see some great tennis here in Adelaide."

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While top seed and 2007 Adelaide champ Djokovic is a potential semi-final opponent for Medvedev, the World No. 7 is more focussed on a deep run than any blockbuster matchups down the road.

Last October, Marc-Andrea Huesler was competing in the Sofia Open final when his opponent, Holger Rune, missed a final forehand return. Huesler tossed his racquet to the side, fell to his knees and buried his head in his hands as he took his bandana off.

When the Swiss lifted his head, he wore a priceless smile stretched wide across his face. Huesler had turned a dream into a reality.

“That was just overwhelming in a sense that you’re completely fufllled by joy. It’s just complete joy and you just get emotional,” Huelser told ATPTour.com. “Also thinking back, when I see videos sometimes looking back I also get emotional pretty fast. It’s something I’ll never forget [in] my life. That’s an amazing experience.”

It was the high point of a breakthrough season for the lefty, who climbed from just inside the Top 200 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings to the fringe of the Top 50, claimed his first tour-level crown and competed in his first two Grand Slam main draws.

“If you look at it as a whole, a lot has changed, but at the same time I had a whole year and it was always one step at a time,” Huesler said. “[I was] trying not to think too far ahead because you never know how far it will happen. I never thought that I’d be now playing United Cup in position two of Switzerland a year ago, even if it existed. It’s an awesome chance for me.”

The United Cup may be an 11-day event, but the impact of the inaugural mixed-teams competition could last long after the final ball is struck in Sydney on 8 January.

Just ask Dimitar Kuzmanov, who this week produced two high-quality singles performances at Perth’s RAC Arena to start his 2023 season in style. The 29-year-old has played 33 tour-level matches in his career, but he believes experiences like the one he has had with Team Bulgaria this week can only help his pursuit to break through further on the ATP Tour.

“It’s really important for us and it gives us a chance to play in those events with this [sort of] stage and these players,” World No. 196 Kuzmanov told ATPTour.com in Perth, where he defeated Michail Pervolarakis and Zizou Bergs this week for the loss of just four games combined. “[It] shows the public that tennis has grown a lot, and even the guys that are ranked Top 200, like me, they are pretty much equalling the top guys. I think that brings more interest to the sport and to the fans.”

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Kuzmanov is speaking from experience. The Bulgarian, who won his maiden ATP Challenger Tour title in Barcelona in 2021, notched the first two of his 18 tour-level wins at the 2020 ATP Cup when he was World No. 423. Those performances kick-started his rise towards the Top 200 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, and in August 2022 he reached his career-high of No. 159.

Petra Martic notched a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 defeat of Nadia Podoroska on Sunday to give Croatia an unassailable 3-0 lead over Argentina at the United Cup in Perth. The winner of Group F will be decided over the next two days in the third and final tie, as Croatia return to take on France.

In Martic's only previous encounter with Podoroska, she had emerged a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 winner in the third round of Rome 2021. Once again, she was able to triumph in three sets, losing the tightest but running away with the other two.

This time, Podoroska roared out of the blocks. The former WTA No.36 dazzled in the opening three games, breaking Martic straight away with a perfect lob and coming up with crowd-pleasing volley and dropshot winners.

But Martic responded with aggression of her own, and Podoroska proved unable to sustain her high level. The Croatian reeled off seven straight games, breaking for 4-2 as Podoroska served consecutive double faults and sealing the set with an exquisitely weighted drop shot of her own.

Both players settled into a groove on serve in the second set: the first eight games saw just one break point between them, quickly snuffed out by Podoroska with a service winner. At 4-4, though, Martic blinked first. A dip in energy and execution saw her quickly lose the last two games of the set with a series of cheap errors, then go down a break at the start of the second set.

It did not take long for the action at the Adelaide International 1 to fire up. Marcos Giron saved two match points in a two-hour, 57-minute epic on Sunday to reach the second round at the ATP 250.

Giron clawed past former World No. 7 Richard Gasquet 7-6(5), 6-7(6), 7-5 to triumph in his first match of the year. The American saved two of the three break points he faced to advance.

"That was a battle. That's one way to start the year. I would have liked to have won in straights, I was up a mini break there in the second," Giron said. "But Richard is a phenomenal player. He's a great player, so the match is never over until it's over. He had match points in the third. I was just happy I was able to give myself a chance to get the win.

"I've been working hard in December, so it was a battle, but I'm looking forward to keep moving forward."

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The United Cup has provided the opportunity for new partnerships and friendships to form, with stars from the ATP Tour and Hologic WTA Tour joining forces to guide their countries to success.

For Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka, it has been an aspect of the mixed-teams event that he has loved. Over the past week, the 21-year-old has spent time with 29-time tour-level titlist Petra Kvitova, a legendary figure in the sport who he has long since admired.

“I remember watching Petra in the Wimbledon final in 2011 when she beat Maria Sharapova. It was amazing,” Lehecka told ATPTour.com. “I was 10 years old at that time, so it is pretty funny and cool I am now here with her. We laughed about that earlier this week. Her career has been tremendous and she is such a good player.”

After enjoying a breakthrough 2022, the Next Gen ATP Finals runner-up is looking to grow his game further in just his second year on Tour. In contrast, the 32-year-old Kvitova is competing in her 17th season at this level.

Eager to learn, Lehecka revealed that the former World No. 2’s experience and guidance have been invaluable around the team camp in Sydney.

Paula Badosa engineered a remarkable comeback to defeat Harriet Dart 6-7(6), 7-6(4), 6-1 to earn Spain's first match-win at the United Cup. Playing her first match of the season, Badosa fought off leg cramps to reel in Dart and keep Spain in the tie on Sunday in Sydney.

Great Britain now leads Spain 2-1. The task now falls to Daniel Evans to try and clinch the win and seal a spot at the top of the Group D table. Evans will face Albert Ramos Vinolas in the second men's singles match.

"I don't know what happened at the second set, I started a little bit to cramp," Badosa said. "It was high intensity, first match of the year, I was nervous. But I could adapt myself. I started to play a little bit more aggressive. I'm very happy with the fight tonight because I played and fought until the last moment."

Badosa went into the match looking for her first win over Dart. The 98th-ranked Brit handed Badosa her last loss of the 2022 season at the Billie Jean King Cup, winning 6-3, 6-4 in November. As luck would have it, Badosa drew Dart again for her first match of the 2023 season. After Great Britain swept Spain on Day 3 to build a 2-0 lead, Badosa was faced with the added pressure of winning a must-win match for Spain.

Dart came through a 77-minute opening set to hold off a furious comeback from the Spaniard, saving two set points along the way. With Badosa struggling with her rhythm on serve, Dart opened up a 5-2 lead before the former World No. 2 dialed in. Badosa ran off four consecutive games and earned two set points on Dart's serve at 6-5, but a brave cross-court forehand from Dart kept her in the set.

Hubert Hurkacz earned a critical win for his country on Sunday evening at the United Cup, where he defeated Alexander Bublik 7-6(8), 4-6, 6-3 to give Poland a 2-1 lead against Kazakhstan.

“It was a lot of fun to play against Sascha. I think that the quality was really high. It was the first match of the new year on the first, so that was pretty good. I’m really happy with the quality and it was definitely a fun match,” Hurkacz said. “It was a lot of fun to play in front of such a great crowd. I’ve never been in Brisbane and I really love it here so thanks guys for coming.”

Magda Linette will now try to close out the tie for Poland when she plays crowd favourite Zhibek Kulambayeva in the No. 2 women’s singles match. If Kulambayeva springs an upset, the tie will come down to a deciding mixed doubles inside Pat Rafter Arena in Brisbane.

The match appeared destined for a final-set tie-break between two of the biggest servers on the ATP Tour, but Hurkacz was opportunistic at the most critical moment. On his third break point at 4-3, the Pole hit a well-placed return deep in the court to put Bublik on the back foot, then rushed forward and executed a perfect half volley to elicit an easy putaway.

If Hurkacz had any nerves as he stepped to the line to serve for the victory, he did not show them. The Pole held to love, crushing his 18th ace of the match to triumph after two hours and nine minutes.

Harriet Dart in action for Great Britain.

Paula Badosa represents Spain in Sydney.

Team Great Britain stand up in support.

Jiri Lehecka and Petra Kvitova celebrate together.

  
Casper Ruud earns his first win of the season.