Zizou Bergs upsets Felix Auger-Aliassime, Belgium beats Canada for place in United Cup QF | ATP tour | Tennis

United Cup

Bergs upsets Auger-Aliassime, Belgium beats Canada for QF spot in the United Cup

Mertens beats Mboko, Bergs/Mertens win critical mixed doubles
January 6, 2026

Team Belgium earned a stunning 3-0 sweep of Team Canada in the United Cup on Tuesday in Sydney, winning Group B and claiming a place in the quarterfinals.

After Zizou Bergs and Elise Mertens recorded impressive singles wins to clinch the tie, the Belgians teamed up to beat Cleeve Harper and Victoria Mboko 6-3, 3-6, 10-5 in a crucial mixed doubles match to top the group.

“We had to beat some big players and a big tennis country today,” Bergs said. “We little Belgians, today we are so proud of each other what we have achieved as a team, especially after a rough first meeting with China. So we are happy and the group is very happy.”

The Belgians who woke up this morning knew that to win their group, they had to conquer Canada. That was a difficult task, as Canada swept China, which defeated Belgium earlier in the event. That proved unimportant at the Ken Rosewall Arena, where Bergs and Mertens found a way to keep their United Cup alive.

“I trust this team 100 percent and I think we can do it and we have actually done it,” said Mertens. “Nothing is impossible, so very happy with the doubles match we played. We really were a team, we grew.”

Bergs secured the biggest victory of his career at the start of the day, upsetting world number 5 Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 6-2.

“Really happy with the performance. I think this also shows our strength that we have. We may fall, but we will get back up and try to be better [than] That’s what we were the day before,’ Bergs said. “This is what we do, and I’m also very grateful to have that team around me.”

Bergs claimed his second Top-10 win (2-10) in one hour and 28 minutes, having also defeated then world number 9 Andrey Rublev in Miami ten months ago. A Belgian had never won the United Cup before.

“I actually forgot that this was my second Top-10 win, so that’s really huge, especially with a convincing way of playing,” Bergs said. “I just saw it as a competition. This is a slightly different format so we are still behind. We still have a lot of games to win today so that was more of the focus and today I just had to get the job done.”

Auger-Aliassime had the best season of his career in 2025, reaching the semifinals of the US Open and competing in the Nitto ATP Finals. He looked sharp in his first match of the season against Zhang, but couldn’t dominate in the same way against Bergs, who saved all five break points he faced.

Watch the women’s singles highlights:

Experience defeated the youth in the second match of the day when Mertens defeated Mboko 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Her two-hour and five-minute triumph brought Belgium to the brink of the quarter-finals.

After coming from a set down to beat China’s Zhu Lin in her opening match of the week, there was no similar escape for 19-year-old Mboko against Mertens.

The Belgian rode a great service performance to a one-set lead, holding at love in each of her first four service games and also decisively breaking Mboko to love in the sixth game. Although Mboko showed the fighting spirit that gave her 15 wins in three sets in 2025 en route to the WTA Tour newcomer of the year to push the match to the limit, she also failed to create break point opportunities in the decider.

Mertens earned the decisive service break in the fourth game after trailing 30/0, winning a whopping 93 percent of the points played behind her first serve overall.

“I’m absolutely excited… I’m very happy with the point for Belgium,” Mertens said. “Also played well against my opponent. She is up and coming, she is very young – she is more than 10 years younger than me!

“I am most proud of how I… [started] the beginning of the third set. I really wanted to get to that point, and of course I had the team behind me. I already have some experience, but of course you are always a little nervous. That’s the game, tennis, a lot of emotions, but I’m very happy with it [the win].”