Clinical displays from Hubert Hurkacz and Iga Świątek have propelled Poland into the United Cup final for the second year in a row after a dominant 3-0 victory over Kazakhstan, where they will seek to avenge their heartbreaking loss to Germany last year.
Hurkacz started proceedings with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Alexander Shevchenko, for which the Pole rarely looked troubled. Struggling with his rhythm after the long flight from Perth, Shevchenko’s performance was beset with unforced errors, while Hurkacz was solid on his serve and did enough on return to secure the crucial breaks.
"[I] played a decent match," said Hurkacz. "Definitely happy with my performance, and some of the things started to click."
World No.2 Świątek then battled from a break down in the first set of her highly anticipated match with Elena Rybakina to produce some of her best tennis to take the tie-break.
The second set was more of a procession, with Rybakina’s flat ball not doing much to trouble Świątek until the final game, where she saved a break point to serve out the match.
"I'm for sure happy with my performance, especially because I didn't start well," said Świątek.
"It's not so easy to come back against a player as confident as Elena. I pushed myself to the limit. I told myself I'm not going to miss anymore."
"So at the end, in the second set, I was able to keep it, even though for sure I felt pressure when I was closing the match, but I'm super happy with my game because it's the first time I was able to win against her on [a] faster surface."
Poland also took the dead rubber mixed doubles to cap off a dominant performance.
For the final, Poland will either play the United States or Czechia, which Świątek revealed that a potential match against Coco Gauff would provide an interesting challenge.
"Coco, she's playing great, I think. I mean, I haven't watched, but I think at this stage she's developing every month, and it's going to be a nice challenge," she said.
"I'm happy with my game. I can kind of play without expectations and just push for more as I did today. I'll be happy anyway if I do, the same kind of work I did today, no matter the result."
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