Hurkacz and Swiatek send Poland to United Cup quarter-finals | ATP tour | Tennis

United Cup

Hurkacz and Swiatek send Poland to the quarter-finals of the United Cup

Poland will play Australia in Sydney on Friday
January 7, 2026

Poland has qualified for the quarter-finals of the United Cup after Hubert Hurkacz defeated Tallon Greek Spoor 6-3, 7-6(4) on Wednesday. Iga Swiatek followed with a 6-3, 6-2 win against Suzan Lamens to level the score.

At the start of the day, Poland needed to win one match to guarantee its place in the last eight at the mixed-team event. Hurkacz wasted little time, producing a dominant serving performance in which he hit 20 aces and didn’t face a break point.

“I definitely didn’t know how I was going to start the season. I haven’t played for seven months, so you don’t really know what to expect,” Hurkacz said. “I played okay in training, but training is so different from the match when you have so many emotions and fans around you. I am quite positively surprised and happy with that performance.”

Prior to this tournament, Hurkacz had not competed since June 2025 due to a knee injury that required surgery. But the former No. 6 player in the PIF ATP rankings has emerged from the closet in the new season with straight-sets victories against world No. 3 Alexander Zverev and Greek track.

“After such a long period you are so excited to be there and it also gives you a different perspective on things,” Hurkacz said. “I think that might help me perform better and even stay calm in the difficult moments.”

Swiatek then wasted no time making the score 2-0. After being pushed to three sets by Lamens in their first meeting at the 2025 US Open, Swiatek pulled away from 3–3 in the first set to win nine of the last eleven matches.

After struggling to serve in her season opener against Germany’s Eva Lys in Poland’s first group match, being broken seven times, Swiatek cleaned things up considerably against Lamens and improved to 2–0 against her. She recorded five holds to love, won 84 percent of her first-serve points and conceded only one break point.

“I’m very happy that I found a way to be more stable in the middle of the first set because it was pretty even up until then,” Swiatek said. “I felt like I had more control over the ball and could go for it. I’m very happy that we won this draw in singles only. It gives us a lot of confidence going into the quarter-finals.”

Katarzyna Kawa and Jan Zielinski completed a 3-0 sweep for Poland with a 6-3, 3-6, 10-4 mixed doubles victory against David Pel and Demi Schuurs.

Poland will take on home favorites Australia in Sydney on Friday evening, in what promises to be a scintillating match. Hurkacz’s side are aiming for their first United Cup victory after consecutive second-place finishes.