{"id":390426,"date":"2026-01-04T05:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/390426\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T05:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T05:34:08","slug":"zverev-begins-2026-season-with-win-clinches-tie-for-germany-news-article-united-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/390426\/","title":{"rendered":"Zverev begins 2026 season with win, clinches tie for Germany | News Article | United Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Alexander Zverev clinched Germany\u2019s victory against The Netherlands on Sunday at the United Cup in Sydney, where the World No. 3 defeated Tallon Griekspoor 7-5, 6-0. Zverev\u2019s win came after Germany\u2019s Eva Lys downed Suzan Lamens earlier in Group F action.<\/p>\n<p>The server held the advantage for the early portion of Zverev and Griekspoor\u2019s clash until the German seized a crucial opportunity by breaking to love at 6-5 to take the opening set. Playing his first match of 2026, Zverev produced a high level and rarely looked back, having dropped just seven points in the second set.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first set, it was tough to get rhythm,\u201d Zverev said in his on-court interview. \u201cOnce I got the chances, I did well and I\u2019m very happy with the win.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think my serve was all right, to be honest,\u201d he added with a laugh. \u201cEverything else was difficult to judge because there wasn\u2019t many long rallies, there wasn\u2019t really much rhythm, but a win is a win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 28-year-old now leads Griekspoor 9-2 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series, marking the second time Zverev has earned nine tour-level wins against a single opponent (Zverev leads Adrian Mannarino 9-0).<\/p>\n<p>A determined Lys launched  the 2024 United Cup champions off to a strong start by defeating Lamens 6-2, 6-2.<\/p>\n<p>Lys came into the tilt having lost her only match against Lamens at WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz level in 2024 in Osaka, but was in command for almost the duration of the first match for both countries at this year&#8217;s competition, which doubled as Lys\u2019 first career United Cup match.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Pure brilliance from Lys and Lamens here \ud83d\udc4f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/mBUOyAxtBr\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/mBUOyAxtBr<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UnitedCupTennis\/status\/2007623292295807475?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 4, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>After trading breaks twice in the first five games, Lys won a pair of crucial games to establish a 5-2 lead and hardly looked back. She denied Lamens a game point to level at 3-3 before breaking on her third break point of the sixth game, and secured a follow-up hold despite trailing 15\/40.<\/p>\n<p>That was a microcosm of the one hour, 39-minute clash. Nine of the match&#8217;s 14 games went to deuce, and Lys won seven of them. Perhaps the most important game was a 1-1 hold from the German in the second set, during which she shook off an injury scare. After taking a medical timeout for blisters when leading 5-2 in the opener, Lys pushed through another tumble that left her shaking out her knee. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As soon as I stepped on the court, I saw how many people are watching&#8230; I was actually quite nervous,&#8221; Lys said. &#8220;First of all, I was definitely running a marathon with Suzan. I definitely was very good on the most important points.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I feel like I played pretty straightforward and not too aggressive, and I feel like that was the key,&#8221; she added, saying that her physical issues, &#8220;could&#8217;ve definitely been worse\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Zverev and Laura Siegemund closed the tie with a 6-3, 6-2 mixed-doubles victory against Griekspoor and Demi Schuurs, earning a clean sweep for Germany.<\/p>\n<p>                    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Zverev clinched Germany\u2019s victory against The Netherlands on Sunday at the United Cup in Sydney, where the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-390426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}