GB LEAVE AUSTRALIA TEETERING AS POLAND AND ITALY MOVE TOWARDS THE QF'S.

Great Britain has taken a major step towards qualification, defeating Argentina 2-1 as the United Cup heats up in the push towards the quarter-finals in Sydney. Poland also opened their campaign strongly with a thrilling 2-1 victory over Norway while Italy booked their spot in the quarter-finals with a 3-0 win over France. 

Katie Boulter kicked off proceedings with a comprehensive 6-2 6-3 victory over Nadia Podoroska before Tomas Martin Etcheverry battled back from a set down to beat a defiant Billy Harris, who played well above his ranking. In the mixed, Boulter returned to partner Charles Broom as they got the better of Etcheverry and Maria Lourdes Carle 7-6 7-5. 

“I really enjoyed my time on court today,” said Boulter. “I love playing doubles. I really don't get that much chance to play. I feel like I can relax and play my game and enjoy it even more than the singles, but obviously I'm very happy to get through my first singles win. It's never easy at the start of a season.

“I feel like I've been playing some really good stuff in practice this week. Obviously it's not always to translate back on to the match court. I felt like I did that pretty well.”

With Australia set to meet Great Britain in a blockbuster tie on New Year’s Day, the Australians have to either win all three matches or if they win 2-1, must win both matches in straight sets and ensure that they take the third match to a third set. 

Boulter said that her now fiancée, Alex de Minaur, was grateful that Great Britain had kept the Aussies in the competition. 

“He was smiling when I came off the court because we kept them in it, so he's happy. I'm not going to be happy until I win. Yeah, I'm just looking forward to a battle.

“Look, I don't know what's going to happen on the day. I just have to keep my head down and try not to think too much about it, but we're both going to be fighting for it. We both want it. We both are competitive.

“No matter what happens, we're still going to go home happy. That's all that matters.”

In the night session, Poland beat Norway in the tie of the tournament so far. Iga Swiatek routinely beat Malene Helgo 6-1 6-0 in a match where the ranking differential was over 400 spots before Casper Ruud got the better of Hubert Hurkacz 7-5 6-3 to send the match into a deciding mixed doubles rubber. 

After opting out of the first mixed doubles match, Ruud rose up for double duty, partnering Urikke Eikeri while Świątek paired with two-time mixed doubles grand slam champion Jan Zielinski. The match was of the highest quality with several gasp-inducing shots in the match tie-break before the Polish team ultimately prevailed thanks to a powerful Zielinski serve on match point. 

All four players acknowledged the quality of the match at the net, with Zielinski revealing that Ruud believed the match was won on a few points. 

“Casper told me was it was a very high-quality match, and it was a matter of couple net cords,” he said. “He complained about the net a couple of times that it was going to be a winner and then it bounced over the net.

“It was mostly just about the quality of the match, a couple of positive comments to each other. We've known each other from the tour for a couple of years already. So it was only positives.”

Although her performance was near flawless, she still felt in press that there were things that she could improve. 

“I'm happy that I could play with Jan because we never played together. Mixed doubles is always, like, a fun game for me. So I'm happy that I can play, like, without any expectations, just focusing on really enjoying tennis and trying to return some men's serve. It wasn't as good as last year, so I need to keep up my game,” the five-time major winner said.

On New Year’s Eve, Italy booked their spot in the quarter-finals with a 3-0 victory over France. Needing only one win to seal qualification, Flavio Cobolli saved match points to come from behind to defeat Ugo Humbert before Jasmine Paolini and the doubles team of Andrea Vavassori and Sara Errani dismantled their opponents in straight sets to seal a clean sweep.

Both Cobolli and Paolini were extremely complimentary of the crowd support they received in both their matches from a vocal Italian crowd. 

“I like personally when there are lot of people watching,” said Paolini. “Here in this competition, every time there are lot of people, especially in the afternoon maybe. Today it's not easy because it's also the last day of the year.

“I like the atmosphere. I think there's more people that a normal tournament maybe at the early stages. It's really nice. I like it. I like when there are lot of Italians, of course.

“It's nice because when you finish the point, you have all the crowd for you,” added Cobolli, “Is always nice. Also the bench is always fire. I think it's nice thing.”

Italy will likely play Australia or Great Britain in the quarter-finals but Paolini was bullish about who she would prefer to face. 

“I don't like also to think which team or which opponent is going to be better. When you think one is better, you play against him or her, and you lost. I prefer just to focus on what is going to be in the next round.”

For now, all eyes will be on Australia’s clash with Great Britain, which will determine if the Aussies can fight back, as they did last year, or whether they will succumb to a disappointingly early exit.