Elena Rybakina in action at Australian Open 2025.© AFP

Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek will battle for United Cup glory after the USA and Poland won their respective semi-finals on Saturday in Sydney amid bizarre circumstances. Swiatek beat Elena Rybakina to help last year’s runners-up Poland see off Kazakhstan and they were joined in Sunday’s final of the mixed-teams tournament by the Gauff-led United States. The Americans defeated the Czech Republic, with Gauff beating Karolina Muchova and then an increasingly irate Tomas Machac retiring from his match against Taylor Fritz in an abrupt and bewildering ending. 

“I woke up so late today,” said Gauff, 20, after she dismissed Muchova 6-1, 6-4 to underline what a threat she will be at the Australian Open starting next week.

Gauff, the world number three, added: “The whole match I was intense and focused, that made the difference today.”

Big-serving Fritz, ranked fourth in the world, lost the first set on a tie break but fought back in the second and looked poised to level up their men’s singles match when a hot and bothered Machac shook hands, sending the Americans through.

“Not the way I want to win in the end, but I think we’re all happy to be through to the final,” said Fritz.

He said that his opponent, who had ranted at the Czech bench and squandered chances to seal the match, told him afterwards he had cramp.

“I didn’t expect it to end so abruptly. I did not notice at the time that he was cramping,” said Fritz.

‘Perfect’

Five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek played a starring role for Poland in their semi-final against Kazakhstan as she beat Rybakina 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.

“This win makes me really proud,” Swiatek said after giving Poland an unassailable 2-0 lead in the tie.

“It is perfect preparation for the Australian Open,” said the world number two.

Swiatek again played with strapping on her right thigh, having been troubled in her tough three-set win over Britain’s Katie Boulter in the quarter-finals.

That clash lasted nearly three hours and Swiatek was slow out of the blocks against Rybakina, who is ranked sixth in the world.

They went to a first-set tie break after Rybakina saved two set points, before the 23-year-old Pole pulled away to take her country into the final.

“I for sure did not start well and had the handbrake on a bit. I knew I had to do something and change the momentum,” said Swiatek, who made light of any injury concerns.

She is relishing the prospect of a meeting with Gauff.

“I think at this stage she’s developing every month and it’s going to be also a nice challenge,” she said.

Hubert Hurkacz put Poland on the way when he beat Alexander Shevchenko 6-3, 6-2 in the men’s singles.

The 16th-ranked Hurkacz lost both his singles matches in group play but defeated Britain’s Billy Harris in the quarter-finals and took that momentum into the meeting with Shevchenko.

Elena Rybakina’s Kazakhstan dumped defending champions Germany out of the United Cup on Wednesday with Alexander Zverev sidelined by an arm injury barely a week away from the Australian Open, while top seeds USA beat China to reach the semi-finals. In Sydney, women’s world number two Iga Swiatek led Poland into the last eight by winning a rematch of her 2023 French Open final against the Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova. Britain also progressed to the quarter-finals with Katie Boulter’s dominant 6-2, 6-1 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki enough to guarantee they won their group.

The upset in Perth sent the Kazakhs into the semi-finals of the 18-nation tournament.

Sixth-ranked Rybakina earned the first point for Kazakhstan, with the 2022 Wimbledon champion hammering Laura Siegemund 6-3, 6-1.

Zverev then withdrew from his clash against Alexander Shevchenko at the last minute with a bicep strain, leaving the 254th-ranked Daniel Masur to face him.

He put up a brave fight but Shevchenko was too strong, powering home 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-2 despite a medical timeout in the second set, complaining about difficulty breathing.

“I was struggling in this heat, it was so rough,” said the world number 78, who upset Stefanos Tsitsipas in group play on Monday.

“I had a headache and my head was spinning. But I wanted to win this one.

“After (losing) the first set I knew I had to shorten the rallies and play aggressively,” added Shevchenko.

In Wednesday’s other quarter-final, 2023 winners United States beat China thanks to singles rubber wins by Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz.

World number three Gauff beat Zhang Shuai 7-6 (7/4), 6-2, and Fritz then put the tie beyond the Chinese with a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Zhang Zhizhen.

“Coco did such a good job putting us ahead and giving me the chance to come out and put us through,” said Fritz.

“There was a little bit of pressure because I didn’t want to be the one who loses it for the team after Coco won all her matches this week. I played a really solid match. Really happy with it.”

Swiatek intensity

Five-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek scored a battling victory over Muchova, coming out on top 6-3, 6-4 after teammate Hubert Hurkacz was upset in three sets by Tomas Machac.

Swiatek returned to partner Hurkacz and outlast Muchova and Machac in the deciding mixed doubles 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 to keep their tournament alive.

Playing her first event since news broke in late November that she served a one-month ban for a doping violation, Swiatek dropped serve to go 2-1 behind in the first set against Muchova.

But she won the next three games to reassert control and wrapped up the contest comfortably.

“Honestly, I love playing against Karolina because she always brings precision and intensity and a little bit of a different game than most of the girls,” Swiatek said.

“So for sure it’s a challenge. I’m happy that even though I lost my serve when I thought it’s going to be easier, I’m happy that I got my intensity even higher in the last two games to break again.”

Britain’s Boulter dominated Gadecki of Australia from the start, showing more consistency and depth from the baseline, needing just 70 minutes to secure victory.

“I’m just so happy to get through this rubber, I’m not going to lie,” she said.

Her Australian fiance Alex de Minaur crushed Billy Harris 6-2, 6-1 in the men’s singles, but it was in vain with Britain already through.

Czech 31st seed Barbora Krejcikova will face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in the Wimbledon final after battling back for a shock 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over former champion Elena Rybakina on Thursday. Just hours after Paolini beat tearful Croatian Donna Vekic 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) in the longest women’s semi-final at the All England Club, it was Krejcikova’s turn to dig deep for victory against fourth seeded Rybakina in two hours and seven minutes on Centre Court. Krejcikova faces seventh seed Paolini on Saturday in what will be the second Grand Slam final of the 28-year-old’s career after her French Open triumph in 2021. “I’m so proud about my game and my fighting spirit today,” said Krejcikova.

The Czech started 2024 with a run to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, but a first round exit at the French Open was a major setback.

She struggled with a back injury and illness, winning just three singles matches in the five months before finally finding her form in remarkable style at Wimbledon.

Krejcikova shocked 11th seed Danielle Collins in the fourth round and former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the quarter-finals, before turning her sights on Rybakina.

The two-time Wimbledon doubles champion is now one win away from an unexpected triumph in the singles.

“Unbelievable. It is very tough to explain, but a lot of joy and a lot of emotions,” Krejcikova said.

“When I broke her in the second set, I started to be in the zone and I didn’t want to leave the zone.”

Rybakina had been in formidable form, dropping just one set as she extended her impressive All England Club record to 19 wins from 21 matches.

The 25-year-old, who won Wimbledon in 2022, made a fast start with two quick breaks for an early 4-0 lead in a one-sided first set against Krejcikova.

In her first Wimbledon semi-final, Krejcikova turned the tide in the second set, landing a priceless break in the sixth game.

She levelled the match on her sixth set point, making it the first time in 20 years that both Wimbledon women’s semi-finals had gone to the final set.

The Czech held all the momentum and she eventually wore down Rybakina, who had committed over 35 unforced errors by the time she surrendered her serve in the decisive, seventh game of the final set.

Paolini had never won a main draw match at Wimbledon before this year, but the world number seven tenaciously saw off Vekic in two hours and 51 minutes to secure a second successive Grand Slam final appearance.

The 28-year-old, who lost the French Open final to Iga Swiatek last month, is the first Italian woman to reach the Wimbledon final.

Paolini, who also made the Australia Open last 16 in January, had not gone past the second round in any Slam before this year.

Without a win at the All England Club heading into the tournament, Paolini now has six victories under her belt and has dropped just two sets in the process.

“The last months have been crazy for me. It is a dream. I was watching finals when I was a kid on this Wimbledon,” she said.

“You know there is no place better than here to fight for every ball and every point. I will remember this forever.”

Vekic paid the price for 57 unforced errors, with the semi-final fittingly ending on another wild forehand from the unseeded Croatian.

Unable to contain her frustration at letting 3-1 and 4-3 leads slip in the last set, Vekic broke down in tears in the closing stages of a rollercoaster clash.

“I was crying because I had so much pain. I didn’t know how I could keep playing,” Vekic said.

“I thought I was going to die in the third set. I had so much pain in my arm, in my leg.”

Novak Djokovic progressed to a record-equalling 13th Wimbledon semi-final without hitting a ball on Wednesday after Alex de Minaur pulled out injured as former champion Elena Rybakina eased through. Australian ninth seed De Minaur, 25, announced shortly after midday at the All England Club that he was “devastated to pull out due to a hip injury”. It means Djokovic has now equalled Roger Federer’s men’s record of 13 semi-final appearances at Wimbledon as he closes on the Swiss great’s mark of eight singles titles. The 37-year-old Serbian is also through to a record-extending 49th men’s Grand Slam semi-final. De Minaur, who beat Djokovic at the United Cup in January, said: “It’s no secret that this would have been the biggest match of my career but it’s a unique injury.

“I woke up this morning wanting to feel some sort of miracle, but there was a high risk of making the injury worse if I stepped on court.

“One stretch, one slide could take this from a three to six weeks’ injury to four months out.”

Djokovic will play US 13th seed Taylor Fritz or Italian 25th seed Lorenzo Musetti for a place in Sunday’s showpiece match.

The world number two — who had knee surgery last month — does not have a title to his name this year and is still seeking a first victory against a fellow top-10 player.

But a historic 25th Grand Slam triumph is coming into sharp focus for Djokovic, who demolished Holger Rune in straight sets in the fourth round.

In early action on Wednesday, 2022 champion Rybakina barely broke sweat in swatting aside last year’s semi-finalist Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-2 in 61 minutes.

She will face Barbora Krejcikova for a place in Saturday’s final after the Czech 31st seed came out on top against Jelena Ostapenko in a battle of former French Open champions.

Rybakina is now 19-2 in main-draw matches at Wimbledon — only retired champions Ann Jones and Steffi Graf have better winning percentages at the tournament.

Russian-born Rybakina broke the Ukrainian 21st seed four times in the match on Centre Court.

The fourth seed was broken in the first game in front of the watching Queen Camilla but hit back straight away and barely put a foot wrong after that.

The 25-year-old, who crunched 28 winners to Svitolina’s eight, said she had “amazing memories” from 2022 but does not like the favourite tag.

“I have an aggressive style of game, I have a huge serve so it’s a big advantage,” she said.

Krejcikova took the first set against the Latvian 13th seed with a single break.

Ostapenko, the 2018 Wimbledon semi-finalist, finally broke through in the fourth game of the second set for a 3-1 lead and backed it up with a hold.

But she went dramatically off the boil as Krejcikova reeled off the next four games for a 5-4 lead.

Ostapenko clung on to break the Czech in the 10th game but 2021 French Open champion Krejcikova played the more composed tie-break to seal the victory.

“I told myself that I’m going to leave here everything I have and I’m really happy that I did and it’s a great moment for me,” said Krejcikova.

“It’s an unbelievable moment that I’m experiencing right now in my tennis career.”

Victory for the 28-year-old Krejcikova comes after a miserable run in 2024, with her season marred by injury and illness.

Her run to the Birmingham quarter-final last month allowed her to celebrate match wins for the first time since Abu Dhabi in February. 

“It was a very, very difficult period. It was actually super difficult even before this tournament. I really want to thank my team that is there today,” she Krejcikova.

Fritz produced a stunning performance to come back against fourth seed Alexander Zverev in the fourth round, winning in five sets.

The American has form on grass, winning eight straight matches dating back to the start of the Eastbourne International last month.

Jelena Ostapenko launched her bid for a second Eastbourne title with a gritty straight sets win over Greet Minnen in the first round of the Wimbledon warm-up event on Monday, while top seed Elena Rybakina withdrew from the tournament. Latvian fifth seed Ostapenko, the 2021 Eastbourne champion, defeated the Belgian qualifier 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 in just under 90 minutes on court. There was a worrying moment for Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, when she fell on the grass midway through the second set but the world number 13 recovered to close out the win.

Ostapenko once won nine straight matches at Eastbourne, taking the 2021 title on England’s south coast and reaching the 2022 final before her successful run was ended by Petra Kvitova.

“I think the surface suits me really well,” Ostapenko said after Monday’s match.

“The first time I played on grass, I was like, ‘how can we play tennis on this surface? I don’t understand what’s happening here’. But then every year was better and better.”

Asked about her fall, Ostapenko, 27, added: “Grass is a great surface, but sometimes it can be really slippery and really tricky. So I took the medical time-out just to make sure I’m fine.”

The leading four players at Eastbourne were all given byes into the second round but top-seed Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, withdrew from the event on Monday following what the WTA said was a “change of schedule”.

Her decision to pull out meant 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin advanced into the second round as a “lucky loser”.

The 25-year-old American will now play Britain’s Harriet Dart.

A wildcard entry, Dart delighted the home crowd on Monday by outlasting former Wimbledon quarter-finalist Marie Bouzkova 7-5, 6-7 (7/9), 6-4 in a marathon encounter of nearly three-and-a-half hours.

In the parallel Eastbourne men’s ATP Tour event, Chinese teenager Shang Juncheng won his first senior level grass-court match by defeating seventh-seed Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (7/4).

Meanwhile, Marcos Giron of the United States beat defending champion Francisco Cerundolo 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) in two tie-break sets.