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Maria Sakkari gave Greece a 2-1 lead over Croatia in the Perth City Final at the United Cup on Wednesday after defeating Petra Martic 6-3, 6-3 in the third match of the day.

Earlier, Donna Vekic had kicked off the tie with an emphatic 6-2, 6-0 defeat of Despina Papamichail in just 64 minutes, giving Croatia an early 1-0 lead. However, Stefanos Tsitsipas drew level at 1-1 after coming from 1-4 down in the third set to beat Borna Coric for the first time 6-0, 6-7(4), 7-5.

The clash of the two teams' top WTA players saw Sakkari deliver a fine serving performance to shut out Martic. The WTA No.6 landed 67 per cent of her first deliveries and won 73 per cent of those points — a recipe for success, as she was broken just once and only faced break points in two games. By contrast, Martic's serve was not the weapon it can be, with only 54 per cent of her first serves landing in.

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Both players fired 19 winners apiece, but Sakkari demonstrated both more consistency and better execution on big points. A series of Martic errors paved the way for Sakkari to break for 5-3 in the first set, and the two-time major semi-finalist kept a firm grasp of momentum by unleashing on a sequence of forehands to capture Martic's serve again at the start of the second set.

“Everything about how I play is from my mum.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas is in no doubt about the influence that his mother, former WTA pro Julia Apostoli, has had on his rise to the top of the game. Not just in terms of raising him and supporting him courtside since he was a junior, but also directly influencing the fundamentals of his game.

“Single-handed backhand, serve and volley sometimes, it’s from my mum,” the nine-time tour-level titlist told ATPTour.com this week. “My mum was a very aggressive player. Nowadays you don’t see many women with a single-handed backhand, but she had a beautiful one, it was her best stroke that she used very effectively. It’s something I consider a strength of mine as well. She has taught me so much about that particular shot and she gives me advice on the net game as well.”

This week in Perth, Tsitsipas has spearheaded Team Greece’s United Cup campaign alongside another Top 10 star who grew up as the child of a tennis player, WTA No. 6 Maria Sakkari. Her mother Angeliki Kanellopoulou reached a career-high No. 43 in the WTA Rankings in 1987.

“I think it’s very special that we [Stef and I] are two very good players and both have very special mums,” said Sakkari. “For us, it’s an inspiration having two very powerful women in our lives and supporting us.

Matteo Berrettini continued his hot start to the new season Wednesday when he earned a critical win against Hubert Hurkacz in the United Cup Brisbane City Final. The World No. 16 relied on his big serve and booming forehand to secure a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 triumph after one hour and 57 minutes

The win importantly gave Team Italy a 2-1 lead against Team Poland, putting his team within one win of a spot at the Final Four of the mixed-teams competition in Sydney. Lucia Bronzetti will try to clinch the tie for her country when she faces Magda Linette in the No. 2 women's singles match. A potentially decisive mixed doubles match will follow.

"I’m really happy for the performance, for my teammates obviously," Berrettini said. "I think the level was really high. Hubi is a great player. We fought in the past, I’m sure we’re going to fight in the future as well. So I’m really, really happy. A little bit tired, but really happy."

Berrettini made a quick start, breaking Hurkacz's serve immediately. However, the encounter turned into a heavyweight clash between the two 2021 Nitto ATP Finals contenders.

There was little to differentiate between the stars, with the critical moment coming at 3-2 in the deciding set. Berrettini hit two sensational passing shots in the game to give himself a break opportunity, which he converted when the Pole missed a forehand long. The Italian now leads their ATP Head2Head series 2-1.

World No. 3 Jessica Pegula and No. 11 Madison Keys gave the United States a 2-1 lead over Great Britain in the Sydney City Final at the United Cup.

Keys gave Team USA an early 1-0 lead after rallying from a set down to defeat No. 145 Katie Swan 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. No. 14 Norrie had the perfect response, putting Team GB on the board with a clutch 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 win over No. 9 Taylor Fritz.

But a comprehensive masterclass from Pegula, winning 6-2, 6-0 over Harriet Dart in 57 minutes, edged the Americans ahead.

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"I think Madi really set the tone with her match," Pegula said. "I think I did everything really well today. I could feel it. Some days you come out firing and you feel really good. I was honestly trying to settle myself down because I was seeing the ball really well today."

Daniil Medvedev had to scratch and claw in his opening match of the season, saving nine set points in his first set of 2023. The former World No. 1 faced no such difficulties on Wednesday.

Medvedev cruised past Miomir Kecmanovic 6-0, 6-3 to advance to the Adelaide International 1 quarter-finals. He will next play Karen Khachanov for a place in the last four.

"It's always better to win 6-0 than to win 7-6 saving nine set points and playing one hour, 20 [minutes]," Medvedev said. "But tennis is not as easy, otherwise everyone would be No. 1, but we have only one. So happy with my level today against a strong opponent. Second set was tougher, but managed to close it out at the end and looking forward to my next matches."

The third seed saved the only break point he faced to triumph after 67 minutes. Medvedev now leads the pair’s ATP Head2Head series 3-0, winning all seven sets they have played.

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Donna Vekic kicked off the United Cup Perth City Final on Wednesday with an emphatic 6-2, 6-0 defeat of Despina Papamichail in just 64 minutes, giving Team Croatia a 1-0 lead against Team Greece.

The No. 158-ranked Papamichail had impressed in her United Cup campaign so far, pulling out a three-set win over Isabella Shinikova on Day 1 and then delivering a superb performance in defeat against Alison Van Uytvanck. But the 29-year-old had few answers to Vekic's relentless power.

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Papamichail showed off her trademark grit in the first game, saving four break points for an early hold. But Vekic converted her sixth break point of the day in the third game, winning a rally that featured net cords and a cat-and-mouse volley exchange before Papamichail put a smash wide.

Thereafter, Vekic settled and began to dominate. The former WTA No.19's return was in fiery form, particularly on the off forehand, one of which captured another break for 5-2. She leavened her power with finesse, too, with the drop shot proving increasingly successful.

Lorenzo Musetti gave Italy a perfect start in the United Cup Brisbane City Final on Wednesday when he cruised past Poland's Daniel Michalski.

The two-time ATP Tour titlist and Next Gen ATP Finals alumnus was in full control on Pat Rafter Arena, showing his class in a 6-1, 6-1 win against the World No. 260. The Italian lost just three service points in his 58-minute victory.

"Of course the serve worked really good," Musetti said. "But I mean every shot [I] had a great feeling with the ball since the first hit on the court. I think I played for sure the best match of the year."

Poland will look to quickly strike back when WTA World No. 1 Iga Swiatek takes the court against World No. 27 Martina Trevisan, a lefty who made last year's Roland Garros semi-finals. That clash will be followed by the No. 1 men's singles match between 2021 Nitto ATP Finals competitors Hubert Hurkacz and Matteo Berrettini, which kicks off the night session not before 5:30 p.m.

Musetti oozed with confidence from the first ball against Michalski, waving his racquet like a wand on the court. Michalski struggled to find his rhythm early, which allowed the World No. 23 to play from the lead, which he never relinquished.

Madison Keys gave Team United States an early 1-0 lead over Great Britain after rallying from a set down to defeat World No. 145 Katie Swan 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the United Cup Sydney City Final.

The tie continues with the battle of team No. 1s as Taylor Fritz is set to face Cameron Norrie and Jessica Pegula to face Harriet Dart. Frances Tiafoe will be ready to play Daniel Evans in the fourth singles tie.

If the teams are locked at 2-2 after singles, the match will come down to mixed doubles, which is scheduled to showcase Pegula and Tiafoe against Dart and Evans.

The winner of the tie will advance to the United Cup Final Four, which commences in Sydney on Friday. The best runner-up from across the three City Finals will also progress to the Final Four.

Great Britain has served as a fantastic underdog foil at the United Cup, having tallied upset wins over Australia and Spain in group play. Swan looked keen to continue the trend early, as she jumped on a slow-starting Keys to take the opening set.

Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury picked up where they left off in 2022 as they opened the new season with a doubles win Tuesday at the Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune.

Fresh off their maiden Nitto ATP Finals title in November, the American-British pairing defeated Sebastian Baez and Luis David Martinez 6-3, 7-6(1) to advance to the quarter-finals at the ATP 250. The top seeds will meet Ramkumar Ramanathan and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela next after the Indian-Mexican pair edged Rohan Bopanna and Botic van de Zandschulp 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 11-9.

French third seeds Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul also advanced via a Match Tie-break on Tuesday, scoring a 6-7(1), 7-5, 10-7 win against the Indian duo of Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni.

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Italian Success In Adelaide
Jannik Sinner and Lorenzo Sonego knocked off home favourites James Duckworth and Alexei Popyrin 6-3, 6-4 at the Adelaide International 1, with Sonego recovering to take the court after a second-set retirement in his matchup against Daniil Medvedev on Monday. Sinner earned two wins on Tuesday, beating Daniel Evans 6-3, 6-2 in singles play.

The United Cup began six days ago in three cities across Australia, with 18 nations competing in six groups. Now, it’s down to just six teams. Wednesday’s City Finals in Sydney, Perth and Brisbane will each feature five matches — two women’s and men’s singles and one mixed doubles — spread across two sessions.

Four of the top five seeded teams made the cut and are joined by Great Britain and Croatia. The team matchups are: United States vs. Great Britain in Sydney; Italy vs. Poland in Brisbane; and Greece vs. Croatia in Perth.

The three winning nations and the losing team with the best United Cup record will advance to Friday's semi-finals in Sydney.

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Sydney, Ken Rosewall Arena
United States (2-0) vs. Great Britain (2-0)

Five singles players for these two teams bring perfect 2-0 records on the new season into the Sydney City Final.

Tim van Rijthoven became the third Dutchman into the second round of the Tata Open Maharashtra in Pune on Tuesday, when he sealed a 6-4, 6-4 first-round victory against Radu Albot.

The No. 111-ranked Van Rijthoven clinched the only break of each set in his maiden tour-level meeting against Albot, wrapping up an 86-minute victory behind some big serving in India. The 25-year-old, who lifted his maiden ATP Tour title on grass in ‘s-Hertogenbosch last June, struck 14 aces and saved two break points to set a meeting with Aslan Karatsev. The eighth-seeded Karatsev was a 6-1, 6-3 winner against Pablo Andujar.

Van Rijthoven joins countrymen Tallon Griekspoor and Botic van de Zandschulp in the second round in Pune. Van de Zandschulp is seeded second at the ATP 250 event, behind Marin Cilic.

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Also on Tuesday, #NextGenATP Italian Flavio Cobolli notched his second tour-level win with a 6-4, 7-5 victory against home wild card Mukund Sasikumar. Cobolli will take on van de Zandschulp on centre court on Wednesday as he bids to reach the third round of an ATP Tour event for the first time.

Much of the discussion around Team Poland at the United Cup has centred around the the captain-player pairing of former WTA No. 2 Agnieszka Radwanska and current World No. 1 Iga Swiatek. While Swiatek has delivered in Brisbane with a pair of singles wins, so too has teammate Hubert Hurkacz, who entered 2023 at No. 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

Hurkacz, who defeated Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan and Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland to help his country to a 2-0 Group B record, also paired with Swiatek for a mixed doubles win against Kazakhstan. 

Asked about her top male player, Radwanska pointed out the 25-year-old's professionalism as a standout trait.

"He's very professional. He's really focussed on the game," she said after Poland's 3-2 victory against Team Switzerland. "He's doing everything off the court to play the best tennis. I admire him that at a really young age he became a model for all the young kids, how to do everything to play the best tennis: how to eat, how to stretch, how to practise, how to be focused all the time, to really prepare for the match 100 per cent.

"That's something that you're not going to see very often at a young age. He did that since I know him. When you're a teenager, sometimes in your mind there are so many different things. He was always focussed on tennis. That's why he's here [in the Top 10], playing some of the best tennis in the world. It's good to see him playing better and better tennis, and I really hope he can do even better than that."

When the World No. 803 Stefanos Sakellaridis arrived in Perth as part of Team Greece for the inaugural United Cup, the 18-year-old needed some time to adjust to his surroundings.

“It was the first time in my life this week seeing a Top 100 player in front of me, actually,” Sakellaridis, who competes regularly on the ITF Men's World Tennis Tour, told ATPTour.com in Perth. “When everyone was coming by, like [David] Goffin, [Grigor] Dimitrov, I was like, ‘Oh, wow’.”

On Tuesday, an injury to his teammate Michail Pervolarakis meant Sakellaridis was called upon to make his tour-level debut against Team Belgium’s Zizou Bergs. Taking on the World No. 129 in front of the biggest crowd of his career could have overwhelmed a player who had never played a match on the ATP Challenger Tour, but Sakellaridis battled to a stunning 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 win.

What a win!

Greek teen Stefanos Sakellaridis has just scored the biggest win of his young career, leading to emotional scenes in Perth#UnitedCup pic.twitter.com/6pZtnsMSf1

The result triggered huge outbursts of emotion from his teammates, including Top 10 stars Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari as well as his sister Sapfo Sakellaridi. Sakellaridis acknowledged that the positive atmosphere in the Team Greece camp this week played a key role in believing he could step up his level when required.

“You can see that the team chemistry is unbelievable, so it’s a huge boost for every one of us to play much better,” said Sakellaridis. “When you feel good, you play good.”

The Brisbane United Cup press conference room was a classroom on Tuesday, and Italian Matteo Berrettini was the professor.

A group of 14 local Australian junior players sat in on Team Italy’s press conference following the country’s tie victory against Norway. When asked what advice the World No. 16 Berrettini would give them, the 26-year-old went into deep thought.

“I think I was really lucky because I met this guy when I was 14,” Berrettini said of his coach and Team Italy captain Vincenzo Santopadre. “I’m always joking around, but, I mean, I have to thank him. I never thank him enough for what we did together.”

Berrettini explained that what he has learned over the years is the importance of enjoying what he is doing as a professional tennis player, through the highs and the lows.

“Obviously it gets tougher and tougher. At the beginning everything is new, so you play the first Slam, you play the first big tournament, then the pressure is coming,” Berrettini said. “You learn as a person, you learn as a player, and you try to kind of learn from what is happening. I'm going to stop talking now.”

WTA Finals champion Caroline Garcia delivered the goods under pressure on Tuesday, when she defeated Petra Martic 7-6(9), 6-4 in a must-win United Cup rubber to keep France's hopes of advancing to the Perth City Finals alive.

Croatia had led 2-0 overnight after wins for Donna Vekic and Borna Coric, but Garcia came into her clash with Martic with a promising 4-1 head-to-head record. The WTA Finals champion backed that up, extending it to 5-1 as she denied Martic the chance to clinch for her team.

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Fittingly for a contest between two of the best servers on Tour, the first set went down to the wire and was decided by the thinnest of margins. Through the first 12 games, it was Martic who carved out more chances on return, deploying her sliced backhand to fine effect — including on one lofted lob that left Garcia flailing.

Garcia needed her finest serves to save break points in the first and ninth games; by contrast, despite serving second, Martic conceded only four points behind her delivery through the first 12 games.

Hubert Hurkacz earned a critical win for Team Poland on Tuesday evening against Team Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka, putting his country one victory from the Brisbane City Final.

Hurkacz battled through a tense clash against the former World No. 3 7-6(5), 6-4 to give Poland a 2-1 advantage. Magda Linette will now try to close out the tie in the No. 2 women’s singles match against Jil Teichmann. If Teichmann wins, the mixed doubles match will decide the tie.

“Never had a chance before to play against Stan, so I was really looking forward for that match. He’s such a legend of the sport. I was watching him win the Grand Slams and now I can share the court with him, so that was a huge pleasure for me,” Hurkacz said. “Definitely a very big match. Obviously very happy to get a point for Team Poland, so I was really excited about it. It was a big point for us and we’ll keep fighting.” 

The stakes were high for Hurkacz and Wawrinka, with both players knowing the edge in Group B was hanging in the balance. Switzerland playing captain battled hard and the margins were fine, but World No. 10 Hurkacz found his best in the critical moments to triumph after one hour and 39 minutes.

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One of the most dynamic duos in the United Cup is Team Poland’s Iga Swiatek, the WTA World No. 1, and Hubert Hurkacz. What would they take from one another’s games to improve even more?

“Ability to win a lot,” Hurkacz revealed, cracking a laugh.

The 25-year-old expanded on his answer: “Definitely Iga’s forehand is really big and the mental strength, it’s also pretty solid. And being able also to handle all the pressure and winning in such a way is really, really impressive.”

Swiatek said she would like to take Hurkacz’s serve and volleys. Want to know what else the Polish stars spoke about? Watch the full United Cup Relationship feature.

Jessica Bouzas Maneiro stepped in for an injured Paula Badosa and delivered a win for Spain. Ranked No. 193 and making her WTA main draw debut, the 20-year-old defeated Olivia Gadecki 6-2, 6-2 to give Spain a 2-1 lead over Australia at the United Cup.

Albert Ramos Vinolas will face Australia's Jason Kubler in the final singles match of the tie. With Great Britain already confirmed as the winner of Group D, neither Spain or Australia will advance out of the group stage.

Spain's WTA No. 1 Badosa was ruled out of the match due to shoulder injury, giving Bouzas Maneiro a fantastic opportunity to earn her first WTA win. Gadecki, ranked No. 202, was also a late call-up, replacing an injured Zoe Hives.

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The match pitted two relatively inexperienced 20-year-olds against each other for pride and ranking points. The closest Bouzas Maneiro had previously come to the main tour was three failed qualifying campaigns, twice in Madrid and once in Tenerife.

Italy is through to the Brisbane City Final at the United Cup after Matteo Berrettini guaranteed his country’s place atop Group E on Tuesday morning.

Berrettini won a heavyweight clash against World No. 3 Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4 to clinch Italy’s tie victory against Norway, earning an insurmountable 3-0 lead. Italy will face Poland or Switzerland in the City Final on Wednesday.

"The goal is to have the longest run possible. It's super nice to play with my teammates. We know each other since a really young age. It's crazy and now we're representing Italy. It's such an honour for us," Berrettini said. "The other day at dinner we were talking about when we were 12 playing against each other. It's super nice and I'm really happy. It's the first time obviously playing with the girls and I think it's special, different, maybe a little bit more stressful. But we're enjoying [it] a lot."

In 2022, Ruud defeated Berrettini in the Gstaad final and the US Open quarter-finals, claiming five consecutive sets against the Italian. But the big-serving Rome-native came out firing inside Pat Rafter Arena and powered past the Norwegian after one hour and 26 minutes.

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