{"id":401646,"date":"2026-01-09T09:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T09:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/401646\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T09:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T09:05:15","slug":"in-form-australians-face-giant-polish-task","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/401646\/","title":{"rendered":"In-form Australians face giant Polish task"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia will face arguably its toughest challenge in the United Cup\u2019s four-year history when they tackle two-time finalists Poland in the quarterfinals on Friday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boasting the second-best overall record since the inaugural United Cup in 2023, Poland has amassed 13 wins and three losses in total, and is undefeated in their 2026 campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Led by singles world No.2 Iga Swiatek and former top-10 singles player Hubert Hurkacz, the European nation has won all six of its matches, sweeping 2024 champions Germany and the Netherlands. \u00a0<\/p>\n

However, Australia will not go down without a fight. Two inspired triumphs sees the home nation feature in the quarterfinals for the first time in two years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Storm Hunter willed Australia to victory in their opening tie against Norway<\/a> on Saturday, which included a straight-sets win in her United Cup singles debut against Malene Helgo.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then, needing to defeat Czechia on Tuesday night to top Group D and return to the quarterfinals, Alex de Minaur was back at his best, storming past Jakub Mensik to help Australia to a 2-1 victory \u2013 notching his seventh United Cup singles win in the process. \u00a0<\/p>\n

MORE: De Minaur bounces back against Czechia<\/a><\/p>\n

After making her United Cup debut against Czechia, Australian No.1 Maya Joint is set to open the tie against Swiatek, a task the six-time major champion believes will be challenging given the teenager\u2019s continuous improvement. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI played against Maya in Seoul [in September], but every match is a different story,\u201d Swiatek said. \u201cI kind of know what her ball feels like, but obviously, I\u2019m pretty sure she also learned by knowing how my ball feels. So, I will need to prepare tactically by watching the last matches that she played.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing an underdog and being this up-and-coming player with this freshness that you have, I think it\u2019s great. It\u2019s a moment where you improve your game the most. She\u2019s I feel at that point of her career, and she\u2019s doing great. She also seems like a really intelligent and humble person, so that\u2019s also important in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, De Minaur and Hurkacz will compete against each other for the fourth time in their careers, a head-to-head battle that the Australian leads two matches to one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Based on the ATP live rankings, De Minaur is currently ranked at a career-high world No.5. The Sydneysider can become the seventh Australian in history to be ranked inside the ATP top five if he maintains his United Cup form and Lorenzo Musetti does not win the Hong Kong Open.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hurkacz is looking forward to facing an in-form De Minaur in front of a packed Australian crowd at Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlex has been very successful in past years. He\u2019s probably close to or at the highest ranking that he ever had,\u201d the world No.83 said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s really quick, moves around the court incredibly well. So it\u2019s going to be a good challenge, especially with the Aussie crowd. It\u2019s going to be a lot of fun, and I\u2019m excited for the match.\u201d<\/p>\n

A semifinal encounter on Saturday night awaits the United States if Australia can prevail against Poland after they defeated Greece 2-1 in Perth on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tickets are available for Australia\u2019s quarterfinal against Poland at Ken Rosewall Arena on\u00a0Ticketmaster<\/a>, with prices starting at $30. You can also watch the tie on the channels of the Nine Network from 5:30pm AEDT.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia will face arguably its toughest challenge in the United Cup\u2019s four-year history when they tackle two-time finalists…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[18278,64,63,72820,85,747,148639],"class_list":["post-401646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alex-de-minaur","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news-article","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-united-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401646","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=401646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}