Day 3 of the United Cup features two of its biggest stars: 22-time Grand Slam singles champion Rafael Nadal and WTA No.1 Iga Swiatek.
Both players are coming off memorable 2022 seasons, both on and off the court. And they will be challenged, they say, to move forward after those successes. Nadal — who won the Australian Open and Roland Garros this past year — and his wife, Maria, welcomed their first child, Rafael Nadal Perello, back in October.
[ATP APP]
Nadal, 36, now the all-time leader with 22 men’s major singles titles, took a break after losing to Frances Tiafoe in the fourth round of the US Open. He was asked about his new role of father.
“Well,” he said, smiling, “the first event I played as a father without the baby with me, I lost [Paris] first round. Second event, travelling with the baby, I was out of the [Nitto ATP Finals] group stage. At the end I won my last match, but I need to keep improving, no? Easy.”
Getting enough sleep hasn’t been a problem, he said.
“We have some help.” Nadal explained. “No problem at all. Just I need to organise a little bit my life, as everybody needs to do when you have a child in your life. I’m excited to play this competition for the first time. Then let’s see. Let’s try our best and let’s see how far we can go.”
Nadal plays the first match of Saturday’s second session at Sydney’s Ken Rosewall Arena against Cameron Norrie of Great Britain. They have a recent but extensive ATP Head2Head history, and it’s been all Rafa, 4-0. They played three times in 2021, twice at majors, and most recently at 2022 Acapulco, when Nadal won 6-4, 6-4.
Swiatek ascended to the top of the Hologic WTA Tour rankings on April 4. Thirty-nine weeks later, she’s still there.
“For sure when Ash [Barty] retired, I felt mixed emotions,” Swiatek said of the woman she replaced atop the rankings. “At first I felt like I wasn’t sure if this is kind of my place to be. Ash, she seemed like a huge role model for everybody in terms of her behavior on court but also off court. She really set the bar pretty high, so I need to show it to people but also show it to myself that I’m in the right place.
“Hopefully maybe this week we are going to be able to meet and I’m going to say it straight to her. But she really inspired me to work harder and her different game style made me realize that there is always room for improvement.”
Like Nadal, Swiatek leads off the late session at Brisbane’s Pat Rafter Arena against Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan. Swiatek won their only meeting last fall in straight sets in Ostrava. She is “super proud” of herself for the accomplishments of the past year — Swiatek won half of the Grand Slams and WTA 1000 events (six of 12) — but forgive her if she doesn’t want to look back every time she has a press conference.
“At the beginning of this year, I’m going to try to kind of cut off everything that happened last year and just focus on the future,” she said. “Because I feel like I can take a lot of experience from these tournaments last year, but I don’t want to really hold on to that too much, because I want to go forward and kind of focus on my next goals.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]
A new team will open play in each of the six United Cup groups on Day 3, with one of the two other teams from each group getting two days’ rest. In addition to Poland and Spain, Saturday will see tournament debuts for Belgium, Germany, Norway and Croatia.
Joining Nadal in Sydney, Alexander Zverev will lead Team Germany against the Czech Republic as he plays his first tour-level match since suffering an ankle injury in the Roland Garros semi-finals. In Perth, Belgium faces Bulgaria before Croatia takes on Argentina. Brazil and Norway open play in Sydney, before Swiatek takes the court for Poland.
United Cup: Day 3 Order of play (local time)
Sydney, Ken Rosewall Arena
Germany vs. Czech Republic (Group C)
Alexander Zverev (GER) vs. Jiri Lehecka (CZE), 10 a.m.
Jule Niemeier (GER) vs. Marie Bouzkova, to follow
Spain vs. Great Britain (Group D)
Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs. Cameron Norrie (GBR), 3:30 p.m.
Nuria Parrizas Diaz (ESP) vs. Katie Swan (GBR), to follow
Perth, RAC Arena
Belgium vs. Bulgaria (Group A)
Alison Van Uytvanck (BEL) vs. Isabella Shinikova (BUL), 10 a.m.
David Goffin (BEL) vs. Grigor Dimitrov (BUL), to follow
Croatia vs. Argentina (Group F)
Donna Vekic (CRO) vs. Maria Carle (ARG), 3:30 p.m.
Borna Coric (CRO) vs. Francisco Cerundolo (ARG), to follow
Brisbane, Pat Rafter Arena
Brazil vs. Norway (Group E)
Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA) vs. Ulrikke Eikeri (NOR), 10 a.m.
Felipe Meligeni Alves (BRA) vs. Viktor Durasovic (NOR), to follow
Poland vs. Kazakhstan (Group B)
Iga Swiatek (POL) vs. Yulia Putintseva (KAZ), 3:30 p.m.
Daniel Michalski (POL) vs. Timofey Skatov (KAZ), to follow