United Cup: Katie Boulter loses epic to Iga Swiatek as Great Britain suffer quarter-final exit to Poland
World No 2 Iga Swiatek battled back from a break down in deciding set to deny British No 1 Katie Boulter a huge upset win; Hubert Hurkacz earlier defeated Billy Harris in the opening men's singles rubber as Poland book United Cup semi-final spot against Kazakhstan on Saturday
Thursday 2 January 2025 12:14, UK
Katie Boulter gave world No 2 Iga Swiatek a huge scare before suffering a 6-7 (4-7) 6-1 6-4 defeat as Great Britain were knocked out by Poland in the quarter-finals of the United Cup.
Boulter battled back from 4-1 down in the first set to take it on a tie-breaker and found herself an early break up in the deciding set before Swiatek fought back following an injury timeout.
The five-time Grand Slam champion won the next eight consecutive points when the action resumed to immediately break back, going on to close out an epic victory in just under three hours.
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Swiatek's win followed that of Hubert Hurkacz's over British hopeful Billy Harris in the opening men's singles rubber, Poland's 2-0 victory over Team GB securing a United Cup semi-final spot against Kazakhstan on Saturday.
The United States are also through to the final four and will play the winner of Friday's clash between Italy and the Czech Republic.
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Boulter can feel proud of her performance against her esteemed opponent, coming so close to arguably the biggest win of her career, but ultimately Swiatek's class and big-match experience told.
Immediately broken in her opening service game, Boulter would not buckle thereafter and took Swiatek to deuce on nine separate occasions in the very next game, before finally breaking the Pole at the fifth time of asking later in the set.
Boutler took the tie-breaker in impressive fashion, 7-4, but was swept aside in the second set - broken on three occasions - but again the Brit fought back in the decider.
She delivered the first blow when breaking Swiatek to love but, after an injury timeout, the world No 2 returned the favour.
It went on serve for the remainder of the set, Swiatek spurning two further break opportunities and Boulter one of her own, before the Pole earned the crucial break to love to clinch the match and United Cup semi-final spot.
Earlier, British No 4 Harris tested Hurkacz - ranked 16th in the world, 109 places higher than his opponent - in the opening match of the best-of-three tie before going down 7-6 (7-3) 7-5.
The 29-year-old Harris was playing as Britain's leading man in the mixed gender team event with Jack Draper nursing a hip injury and Cameron Norrie starting the season at an ATP event in Hong Kong.
While he served strongly, Harris was unable to break 2021 Wimbledon semi-finalist Hurkacz and fell short in the decisive moments.
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