{"id":407142,"date":"2026-01-11T23:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T23:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/407142\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T23:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T23:23:08","slug":"australian-open-iga-swiatek-plays-down-fitness-concerns-after-belinda-bencic-loss-in-polands-united-cup-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/407142\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian Open: Iga \u015awi\u0105tek plays down fitness concerns after Belinda Bencic loss in Poland’s United Cup win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Concerns over Iga \u015awi\u0105tek’s fitness and form are overshadowing Poland’s breakthrough United Cup final triumph over Switzerland in Sydney.<\/p>\n

Katarzyna Kawa and Jan Zielinski clinched Poland’s maiden title with a typically steely 6-4, 6-3 victory over Belinda Bencic and Jakub Paul in the deciding mixed doubles rubber under a closed roof at Ken Rosewall Arena.<\/p>\n

The Swiss defeat denied Bencic a perfect 10 out of 10 for the tournament, after the tournament MVP and Tokyo Olympics gold medallist had upset an ailing \u015awi\u0105tek 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 for a fifth consecutive singles win to go with four doubles successes with the unheralded Paul.<\/p>\n

Hubert Hurkacz levelled the tie at one rubber apiece with a pulsating 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Switzerland’s inspired playing captain Stan Wawrinka.<\/p>\n

The 40-year-old triple grand slam winner whipped fans into a frenzy and gestured love-heart signs to the delirious crowd after dragging his 16th-seeded Swiss underdogs to within a set of improbable Cup glory at the $17 million mixed showpiece.<\/p>\n

Wawrinka wowed spectators as Hurkacz threatened to unravel under the crushing pressure of trying to keep the Poles in the tie.<\/p>\n

Alas, the retiring champion wilted after nabbing the second set as Poland stormed to a first United Cup crown after losing back-to-back finals in 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n

But while her team rejoiced, \u015awi\u0105tek will arrive in Melbourne with her health and game under intense scrutiny after a series of mysterious meltdowns and lacklustre showings in Sydney.<\/p>\n

\"Iga<\/p>\n

Iga \u015awi\u0105tek suffered two tough losses on the weekend. (Getty Images: Brendon Thorne)<\/p>\n

In a worrying development just a week out from the Australian Open, the world number two left the court for treatment after suffering a rare bagel in her deflating loss to Bencic.<\/p>\n

\u015awi\u0105tek was in state of complete despair by the end, tossing her racquet across the court and bursting into tears following her second straight defeat at the event.<\/p>\n

World number one Aryna Sabalenka underlined her Open favouritism with a third successive Brisbane International<\/a> crown on Sunday, but second-ranked \u015awi\u0105tek’s defeat against the Swiss marked her second of the week after a straight-sets loss to world number four Coco Gauff on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The six-time grand slam winner was also seen crying at the first changeover during her victory over Australian Maya Joint on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Ecstatic with Poland’s victory, \u015awi\u0105tek played down any issues.<\/p>\n

“Everything is fine. Just super sore,” she said.<\/p>\n

“First tournament of the year, it causes the body [to feel] a bit different. Differently than during the season. But I had similar experience last year also, so I’ll just get good recovery, a couple of days off.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

“Also, these team events, I really love them, but they really take a lot of energy from you. So I still need to figure out how to balance that maybe in the future because I get so excited on the bench.<\/p>\n

“It’s almost like playing a match, honestly, so, yeah, it’s all good.”<\/p>\n

But after snaring the third leg of a fabled career grand slam with a famous 6-0, 6-0 Wimbledon final triumph last July, the state of the 24-year-old’s health and game will be among the major talking points in the countdown to the season’s first major starting next Sunday at Melbourne Park.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Concerns over Iga \u015awi\u0105tek’s fitness and form are overshadowing Poland’s breakthrough United Cup final triumph over Switzerland in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,6571,2636,5427,85,6221,747,148639],"class_list":{"0":"post-407142","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-australian-open","11":"tag-iga-swiatek","12":"tag-poland","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-switzerland","15":"tag-tennis","16":"tag-united-cup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407142","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=407142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}