Swiatek soars: Comeback queen leads Poland to United Cup final

• Polish duo Swiatek & Hurkacz defeated France 2-0 to reach the final.
• Swiatek extends her win streak to 15.
• Hurkacz overcomes Mannarino to give Poland an early lead.

Hubert Hurkacz and Iga Swiatek triumphed over their singles opponents to help Poland overcome France 2-0 on Saturday, securing a spot in the United Cup mixed team tournament final.

Swiatek has already won her 15th straight WTA match, according to Opta. Swiatek has only ever won 15 straight games before, but this is concerning for her opponents because she will likely win 37 straight in 2022.

Global No. 9 Hurkacz, 6-3 7-5, denied Adrian Mannarino’s late comeback attempt to give top-seeded Poland a 1-0 lead in the $10 million competition, which got underway last week with eighteen nations competing.

Against Caroline Garcia, Swiatek faced a more difficult match; the world No. 1 lost the first set but then found her best game again, winning 4-6 6-1 6-1.

Before this month’s Australian Open, Swiatek won her fourth straight singles match after taking an early double break to lead 4-0 in the decider. The 22-year-old never looked back.

“I’m happy that I came back and I didn’t make so many mistakes as in the first set,” Swiatek said on court, after her win. “For sure, Caro was putting pressure as usual, so I’m happy that we’re through to the final.”

“Sometimes it’s a bit hard to point [to] one thing that changed [after the first set]. I just feel like I needed to calm down a little bit and not rush it, and also observe the ball a little bit more, because I felt like I was sometimes off the timing. Maybe because we came from Perth, but for sure I needed some time to adjust, and I did that, so I’m happy.”

Later on Sunday in Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Arena, Germany and the hosts, Australia, will compete for a position in Sunday’s final versus Poland.

The dates of the Australian Open are January 14–28.

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