United Cup SF Preview: United States, Italy On Brink Of Final

Last year, Jessica Pegula lost all of her four matches against Iga Swiatek. But the new year has brought with it a burgeoning confidence for the American. In 2023, Pegula’s now 1-0 against the World No. 1.

Pegula scored a decisive 6-2, 6-2 victory over Swiatek on Friday at the United Cup semi-finals in Sydney. When Frances Tiafoe followed that up with similarly definitive 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Kacper Zuk, Poland found itself in the precarious predicament of needing to win all three matches Saturday against the United States to advance to the final.

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It’s the same for top-seeded Greece, surprisingly down 2-0 to Italy after Martina Trevisan and Lorenzo Musetti won their singles matches. Trevisan was a 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-5 winner over World No. 6 Maria Sakkari in a contest that ran three hours, 15 minutes. Musetti scored a 6-1, 6-1 victory against Stefanos Sakellaridis.

Here’s how Saturday’s matches — two singles contests and a potential mixed doubles decider in each tie — shape up:

United States 2, Poland 0

The good news for Poland? The team is rolling out the World No. 10 to start things off in Hubert Hurkacz. The bad? His opponent, Taylor Fritz, is No. 9 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

“I think Taylor and Hubi is going to be tough,” said Tiafoe, who is now a heady 4-0 in singles matches at the United Cup. “I think whoever serves better is probably going to get over the line. They’re both in two different stages of their career. They're both playing the best tennis of their life. So we’ll see.”

If Hurkacz manages to win, Magda Linette will try to level the tie — bringing it to a deciding mixed doubles confrontation. Linette meets Madison Keys, who is 3-0 in singles so far in United Cup play.

“I've got to back Madi with her big game, as long as she serves pretty well,” Pegula said. “She’s been playing some really solid tennis. I think it helps that she kind of got that tough three-setter out of the way [in a win against Katie Swan in the Sydney City Finals], so hopefully she’ll feel pretty loose tomorrow.”

Said Swiatek, who was in tears after falling to Pegula: “Magda played really solid match two days ago. So I hope she’s going to be confident. I would say [Linette and Hurkacz] are both 50/50, but it depends. I will do my best on the bench.

“I wasn’t able to do that on court today, but I will do my best to cheer and help them.

Saturday, Jan. 7
Ken Rosewall Arena, 10 a.m. start

Hubert Hurkacz (POL) vs. Taylor Fritz (USA) / Head to head: 1-1
Magda Linette (POL) vs. Madison Keys (USA), to follow / Head to head: 1-1
Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz (POL) vs. Jessica Pegula and Taylor Fritz (USA), to follow

Italy 2, Greece 0

One week in, Italian captain Vincenzo Santopadre is starting to run out of material for his United Cup press conferences.

“Of course I have to say the same thing that I said last two, three matches, but I’m really super, super happy about this,” he said after his team bolted to a 2-0 lead. “We know that we have a strong group, but I think we have unbelievable players, because they are helping each other so much.”

It falls to World No.4 Stefanos Tsitsipas to keep Greece alive, but he’s facing a major threat in Matteo Berrettini. Tsitsipas has won their two previous ATP Head2Head matches.

Despina Papamichail has a 1-0 record against Lucia Bronzetti — but that victory came five years ago at an ITF event.

If Greece can level the tie, it would all come down to a mixed doubles match between Tsitsipas and Sakkari and the Italian team of Camilla Rosatello and Musetti.

Saturday, Jan. 7
Ken Rosewall Arena, not before 5 p.m.

Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) vs. Matteo Berrettini (ITA) / Head to head: Tsitsipas, 2-0
Despina Papamichail (GRE) vs. Lucia Bronzetti (ITA) / Head to head: Papamichail, 1-0
Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) vs. Camilla Rosatello and Lorenzo Musetti, to follow