The first semifinal tie at the inaugural United Cup saw Poland face off against the United States in a highly-contested matchup.
While the US team has depth in their team and has a high-ranked player for every match, the Polish team relied on their highest-ranked ATP & WTA stars, Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz. The world no. 1 on the WTA Tour opened the tie against world no. 3 from the United States, Jessica Pegula.
Swiatek was a favourite in this match as in all the previous matches she played at the United Cup. On the other hand, Pegula already lost to Petra Kvitova this season and the H2H against the Pole also didn't favour her as she lost in all four meetings last year.
But this match was different. Pegula started with an early break and despite being broken back, she added two more breaks and soon led already 5-1 in the first set. She then had to break points to win the set 6-1, but Swiatek denied those and the American eventually won the first set 6-2.
World no. 1 wanted to bounce back in the second set and she started a bit better than in the first one. But soon, Pegula started a streak of 12 consecutive points won and grabbed a 3-1 lead. She then added one more break and won the match 6-2, 6-2 in only an hour and 11 minutes.
She was heavily supported by her fellow countrymen on the bench, and one of them was Frances Tiafoe, who was supposed to play the next men's singles match. Supporting Pegula, he shared a picture on Instagram Story, describing her match: "This girl giving an absolute lesson to the world number one today. Congrats Jessica Pegula. Way to start US team off cap."
Motivated by the victory of his teammate, Tiafoe was also dominant in his match against Kacper Zuk. He had four break points in the first set and despite converting only one, it was enough for him to win comfortably 6-3.
In the second set, the American struggled a bit more on his serve as he faced five break points. But he also had five chances to break his opponent and while Zuk couldn't use his chances, Tiafoe broke him twice to win the match 6-3, 6-3, and give his team 2-0 lead.
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