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The British No 1 Katie Boulter admitted she was dreading the prospect of playing against her fiance, Alex de Minaur, after leading Great Britain to victory over Argentina in the United Cup.
Boulter beat Nadia Podoroska in straight sets in Sydney, then paired up with Charles Broom in the doubles to win the tie after Billy Harris had lost his singles rubber to Tomas Martin Etcheverry. The 28-year-old could come up against De Minaur in a mixed doubles match when Britain face Australia on New Year’s Day.
“I don’t know about having a match against him, I think that’s going to be terrible, and a bit of a popcorn match,” Boulter said. “But yeah, let’s hope we don’t reach there and we win before.”
Boulter secured a 6-2, 6-3 win over Podoroska, and Harris, stepping up on the men’s side in the absence of the injured Jack Draper, looked set to continue the winning theme as he took the first set against Etcheverry 6-3. However, a rankings difference of 66 kicked in and Etcheverry won the next two sets 6-3, 6-2 to level the tie, leaving Boulter and Broom to secure victory with a 7-6 (4), 7-5, win over Etcheverry and Maria Lourdes Carle.
Boulter told the United Cup website: “Very, very pleased with today. Last year I played so well in singles and didn’t get any mixed doubles rubbers, so I really wanted this one so badly. I feel like we both played so great together considering it’s our first time. But I’m just thrilled to get the win.”
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan reached the quarter-finals mixed team tournament with a comfortable win over Greece, as Elena Rybakina defeated Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-3 after Alexander Shevchenko stunned Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Former Wimbledon champion Rybakina, who is using the 18-nation tournament to prepare for next month’s Australian Open, edged a tight opening set against Sakkari before powering ahead 5-0 in the next. She was broken late on but stayed composed to close out the contest on serve, leaving her new coach Goran Ivanisevic beaming in the dugout.
“We’ve just been working a couple weeks together. This is our first official tournament,” Rybakina said. “We’re still getting to know each other a bit. He’s a fun guy. He gives some experience from when he played and also as a coach. I’m just happy to work with him. Hopefully we’ll have some good results together.”
Shevchenko pulled off a major upset earlier when he downed an ill and error-prone world No 11 Tsitsipas 6-4, 7-6 (0) to put Kazakhstan on course for victory in the Group C tie in Perth. “It will definitely go in my record as one of my best wins,” Shevchenko said. “He wasn’t at his best today but still I played really well and I found the moments to win the match.”
The world No 2 Iga Swiatek will be in action when Poland face Norway in Group B, while defending champions Germany meet China in Group E.
