A determined Eva Lys got 2024 champions Germany off to a strong start in Group F United Cup action on Sunday in Sydney by beating Suzan Lamens of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-2 before ATP World No. 3 Alexander Zverev clinched the tie by defeating Tallon Griekspoor 7-5, 6-0.\u00a0<\/p>\n
United Cup:\u00a0Scores<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Standings<\/a><\/p>\n Kyiv-born German No. 1 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’s competition — and her first-ever United Cup match.<\/p>\n After the two players traded breaks of serve twice in the first five games of the match, Lys won a pair of titanic games to establish a 5-2 lead and hardly looked back. She denied Lames a game point to level at 3-3 before breaking on her third break point of the sixth game, and dug a follow-up hold out from 15-40 to lead 5-2.\u00a0<\/p>\n That was a microcosm of the 1 hour and 39-minute affair. In all, nine of the match’s 14 games went to deuce, and Lys won seven of them. But the most important game was a 1-1 hold from the German in the second set, where she shook off an injury scare. After taking a medical timeout for blisters when up 5-2 in the opener, she pushed through another tumble that left her shaking out her knee.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “As soon as I stepped on the court, I saw how many people are watching … I was actually quite nervous,” Lys said afterwards. “First of all, I was definitely running a marathon with Suzan. … I definitely was very good on the most important points.”<\/p>\n “I feel like I played pretty straightforward and not too aggressive, and I feel like that was the key,” she added, saying that her physical issues “could’ve definitely been worse.”<\/p>\n 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 \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 \u00a0<\/p>\n \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 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 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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A determined Eva Lys got 2024 champions Germany off to a strong start in Group F United Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428,1959],"class_list":{"0":"post-386737","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}