Poland reach United Cup semis, Nadal beats Thiem upon return

Poland moved past China to reach the United Cup semifinals after Hubert Hurkacz downed Zhang Zhizhen 6-3, 6-4, and Iga Swiatek beat Zheng Qingwen 6-2, 6-3, respectively, on Wednesday.

Poland also reached the last four last year, when they were halted by Team USA, who eventually won the tournament. 

Zhang, ranked 58th in the world, struggled to fend off the heavy serves and forehands in an opening match of one hour and 22 minutes from the world number nine, who won his second masters title last year in Shanghai and improved his head-to-head record against Zhang to 3-1.

"It is always a tough match against him," Hurkacz said. "He can play amazing shots and is such a tough competitor. I am really happy with that victory today."

"I believe I have more in my game but I was really happy with my performance today. He is a really good player and hopefully this year he's gonna have a great season," he added.

Zhang is currently the highest-ranking men's singles player from China. In October 2022, he became the first Chinese player to reach the top 100 in the ATP singles rankings. In May 2023, he became the first Chinese man to reach an ATP Tour Masters 1000 quarterfinals at the Madrid Open, before he officially outranked fellow Chinese players in July.

Shortly after, Chinese youngster Zheng, who ranks 15th in the world, took on world number one Swiatek and established an early 2-0 in the opening set before Swiatek won six games in a row, and went on to clinch the second set 6-3, improving her head-to-head record with the Chinese hopeful to 5-0.

This was the first ever campaign of the Chinese squad at the mixed team tournament. They emerged top among runners-up across six groups to earn a berth at the quarterfinals, after they stunned tennis powerhouse the Czech Republic 3-0 in the opening tie of round robin and lost 2-1 to Serbia led by 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic.

Meanwhile the Brisbane International, another tennis tournament held in Australia with big names on the roster warming up for the upcoming Australian Open, saw Rafael Nadal and Naomi Osaka return after injury and pregnancy, respectively. Both players have won twice at Rod Laver each.

Spanish giant Nadal, who is two titles short of leading Djokovic, beat Austria's Dominic Thiem 7-5, 6-1 who struggled through the 2023 season to return to top form after being forced out by a wrist injury in the middle of 2021 for nine months.

Nadal, 37, has said earlier that the 2024 season would be his swan song, which made this first-round victory all the more emotional.

"Today is honestly an emotional and important day for me after probably one of the toughest years of my tennis career," Nadal said after the match.

"I had the chance to come back after a year and play in front of an amazing crowd, and play at a very positive level on the first day is something that makes us feel proud - my team and family who have been there every day in the last year," he added.

Former women's singles world number one Osaka of Japan did not have a restart as smooth as Nadal's, though, losing to Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, who also once dominated the women's ranking, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 in the second round.