{"id":402200,"date":"2026-01-09T15:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/402200\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T15:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:04:13","slug":"poles-apart-hosts-australia-bomb-out-of-united-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/402200\/","title":{"rendered":"Poles apart: hosts Australia bomb out of United Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Skipper Lleyton Hewitt is offering no regrets after Australia crashed out of the United Cup despite a typically heroic display from never-say-die Alex de Minaur.<\/p>\n

De Minaur lit up Ken Rosewall Arena to send Australia’s quarter-final against Poland into a deciding mixed doubles rubber, only for John-Patrick Smith and Storm Hunter to misfire with the tie on the line.<\/p>\n

Australia’s baseline warrior repelled everything Hubert Hurkacz could fire at him before pulling out a pulsating 6-4 4-6 6-3 victory over the power-serving former Wimbledon semi-finalist.<\/p>\n

\"De<\/p>\n

Alex de Minaur roars in delight after a gutsy three-set win over Hubert Hurkacz. (Dan Himbrechts\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

The tournament hosts were staring down the barrel of elimination after six-time major winner Iga Swiatek dealt soon-to-be first-time grand-slam seed Maya Joint a harsh reality check with a 6-1 6-1 mauling in Friday night’s women’s singles encounter.<\/p>\n

But de Minaur once again delivered for his country, the world No.6 electrifying his home-town Sydney fans with signature tenacity, speed and courage under fire. <\/p>\n

De Minaur had no right winning, fending off 10 of Hurkacz’s 11 break-point chances in an epic encounter stretching two hours and 20 sapping minutes.<\/p>\n

“I love playing here. I love playing in front of you guys. The atmosphere from the very first point to the last was amazing and thank you from the bottom of my heart.”<\/p>\n

While admitting to harbouring some “dark thoughts” in the third set, the dogged de Minaur produced just two unforced errors to prevail.<\/p>\n

“That’s what it took,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I just had to fight him off from the first point to the last, a huge mental effort.”<\/p>\n

\"Zielinski\"<\/p>\n

Katarzyna Kawa and Jan Zielinski played brilliantly in the mixed doubles to seal Poland’s win. (AP PHOTO)<\/p>\n

Alas, the Australian spearhead’s effort – after he also conjured a singles and doubles win in Tuesday night’s 2-1 comeback triumph over Czechia – proved meaningless.<\/p>\n

Polish captain Mateusz Terczynski pulled off a selection masterstroke, resting Swiatek and Hurkacz and drafting in Katarzyna Kawa and multiple grand slam doubles champion Jan Zielinski for the deciding rubber instead..<\/p>\n

Kawa and Zielinski duly dominated Hunter and Smith, winning 6-4 6-0 to seal the tie and set up a Saturday night semi-final showdown against top-seeded titleholders, the USA.<\/p>\n

De Minaur appeared to gesture to Hewitt that he wanted to play the doubles, but the captain was having none of it nine days out from the Australian Open.<\/p>\n

“Alex was feeling a few tweaks the last few days and he’s been doing a lot of training in the off-season to get ready for five-set matches,” Hewitt said.<\/p>\n

“We decided that the best thing for him, for his body moving forward, was was not to put his hand up to play mixed tonight.<\/p>\n

“It is tough, though as well to make a decision so quickly, and also if you are that second match to turn around straight away and switch on.<\/p>\n

“And you just don’t want to risk injury as well and especially the amount of moving that he had to do tonight against a bloody quality player.”<\/p>\n

\"Iga<\/p>\n

Iga Swiatek dominated her singles match against Maya Joint at the United Cup in Sydney. (Dan Himbrechts\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Swiatek had earlier overcame a mysterious meltdown to crush Joint in just 58 minutes to give Poland a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n

But the former world No.1’s victory was anything but straightforward.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old burst into tears at the opening changeover, despite breaking the Australian teenager in the third game for a 2-1 lead, only to return to the court and play on.<\/p>\n

Swiatek gave her courtside teammates a thumbs-up after gaining a double break for a 4-1 lead, and barely lost a point in winning six games on the spin to seize the first set, then the second in equally convincing fashion.<\/p>\n

\"Maya<\/p>\n

Despite her loss, Maya Joint will be seeded at this month’s Australian Open. (Dan Himbrechts\/AAP PHOTOS)<\/p>\n

Despite Joint’s defeat, the world No.32 remains guaranteed to be seeded for the first time in Melbourne.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Skipper Lleyton Hewitt is offering no regrets after Australia crashed out of the United Cup despite a typically…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18278,64,63,213670,2636,213671,208900,37660,31229,44,93443,148639],"class_list":{"0":"post-402200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-alex-de-minaur","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-hubert-hurkacz","12":"tag-iga-swiatek","13":"tag-jan-zielinski","14":"tag-john-patrick-smith","15":"tag-lleyton-hewitt","16":"tag-maya-joint","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-storm-hunter","19":"tag-united-cup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402200","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=402200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}