Injured Swiatek Battles Past Boulter To Secure United Cup Semi-Final For Poland

Thursday, 02 January 2025 at 13:11

byErik Virostko

Iga Swiatek had to battle through an injury, but she did and beat Katie Boulter to send her country into the 2025 United Cup semi-finals.

In 2024, Poland was one of the favorites to win the United Cup, and even though they reached the final, they lost in the final tie against Germany despite having match points.

This year, they are one of the top favorites again, seeded second, just behind the United States. Team USA was the second one to reach the semi-finals at the competition this year, after Kazakhstan and Poland quickly followed the two teams.

Their quarter-final opponent was Great Britain. In the men's singles match, Hubert Hurkacz took on Billy Harris, who is the ATP World No. 125 player. Harris had a difficult job this week, as after Jack Draper's withdrawal, he was the British No. 1.

Competing against players ranked much higher than him, the Brit came into the quarter-final match with two losses at the United Cup, and his quarter-final match against Hurkacz didn't go any better.

Although the Polish player lost both of his matches this year as well, he finally proved his qualities in this match. In the first set, both players served exceptionally, but with Hurkacz leading 6-5, Harris felt the pressure.

The British player faced two break points when trying to send the set into the tie-break, but he saved both. Still, Hurkacz was the better player in the tie-break, winning it 7-3.

Early in the second set, the Polish player had to save three consecutive break points on his serve after his opponent won seven points in a row. Hurkacz succeeded, and it seemed that the second set would be decided in a tie-break as well.

Both players held their serves easily, but that was again until 5-5 when Harris felt the pressure again, and this time, he wasn't able to handle it, losing his serve, which decided the match.

Hurkacz won 7-6(3), 7-5 while blasting 18 aces past his opponent in the match, giving Poland a 1-0 lead. This was the first time Swiatek could have sealed the tie already in her singles match, and she didn't disappoint, even though her match was incredibly challenging.

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Swiatek's opponent, Katie Boulter, brought her A-game into this meeting. Although the WTA World No. 2 player was up 3-0 and 4-1 early in the first set, the British player erased the deficit, forcing a first-set tie-break.

Boulter was actually the better player in the tie-break despite being 0-2 and 3-4 down. She won the last four points of the tie-break, winning it 7-4 and taking the first set.

In the second set, however, Boulter experienced what many players who play against Swiatek experience. The Polish player won all the important rallies, as six of the seven games in the second set were decided after a deuce.

Swiatek won five of those six games that were decided after deuce, and also thanks to that, she won the second set easily, 6-1.

But the Pole had a bad start into the second set. She was the first player broken, falling behind 1-2, when she asked for a medical time out for a leg issue. The Pole then returned with her right thigh bandaged but won eight consecutive points to lead 3-2.

Both players then had their chances, as Swiatek had two break points at 4-3, and Boulter had one at 4-4. But not using that chance would be costly for the British player.

Since leading 4-4 and 40-30, Boulter lost seven consecutive points, which were also the last seven points of the match. Swiatek won thanks to a great late push, triumphing 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-4 to send Poland into the semi-finals of the 2025 United Cup. Their opponents will be players from Kazakhstan.