AFTER heartbreakingly missing out on the title last year, Poland returned to the United Cup final in 2025 to hope to go one better. The European nation overcame a stiff challenge from Kazakhstan to again sweep another nation, finishing with a 3-0 record, sealing the result after both singles matches.

Hubert Hurkacz kick-started the semi-final with a comprehensive 6-3 6-2 victory over Kazakh opponent Alexander Shevchenko. In the more expected result of the two, world number 16 Hurkacz went to 4-0 in their head-to-head, and won his third match against Shevchenko in less than 12 months.

Hurkacz needed just 58 minutes to wrap up the opening match, serving 10 aces, while working at a 76 per cent clip to win 36 of 46 points on serve (78 per cent), including 80 per cent of his first serve points without producing a double-fault.

By contrast, the inconsistent Shevchenko was just that, only winning 53 per cent of his first serve points, and could not generate a break point opportunity, while being broken three times from four chances.

“The last match here (victory over Billy Harris) gave me a little bit of confidence and I’ve been playing better with every single match,” Hurkacz said.

Once Hurkacz had grabbed the upper hand, it was over to world number two Iga Swiatek up against fellow Grand Slam winner and world number six, Elena Rybakina. The pair have met six times and Rybakina won four of them leading into the match, while both players remained undefeated throughout the United Cup, including in doubles.

However in a nail-biting two-hour and four-minute epic, it was Swiatek who closed the match out, winning 7-6 6-4 to send her nation into another United Cup final. She won two thirds of her first serve points and 61 per cent of her second serve points, only broken once, while creating nine break point opportunities off the Rybakina serve, converting two of them.

“I think that’s the first time I was able to win with Elena on a faster surface, so it means a lot. I for sure didn’t start well, I felt like I [was] on the hand-brake a bit,” Swiatek said.

“I wanted to really work and change the momentum, and I’m happy that I kind of did that at the last possible chance in the first set. “I kind of told myself that I’m not going to miss anymore, and I’m happy because for sure it was tough. “It’s always tough against Elena.”

With the tie secured, Poland sent out doubles duo Maja Chwalinska and Jan Zielinski who completed the clean sweep with a 6-4 6-1 victory over Shevchenko and Zhibek Kulambayeva. Poland awaits the winner of the United States and Czech Republic – the latter of which they beat in the group stage – for tomorrow’s United Cup final.