An unprecedented victory by Cameron Norrie over Rafael Nadal on the last day of the calendar year gave the British side a 2-0 lead over Spain in the duel between the two nations in the group stage of the United Cup, a professional competition .mixed event that takes place at the Ken Rosewall Arena, in Sydney (Australia).
Norrie, 27, and adding to his previous defeats with Rafa (four), 36, current Australian Open champion, beat former world number one and winner of 22 Grand Slam tournaments – Australian Open ( Melbourne), France (Roland Garros), England (Wimbledon) and USA (Flushing Meadows) – for 2-1, with partials of 3-6, 6-3 and 6-4.
In the previous match, and in the females, Katie Swan, 23 years old, 145th in the WTA ranking, beat Nuria Parrizas-Diaz, 70th in the ranking, 31 years old, by 2-1, with partials of 3-6, 6-1 and 6-2.
«He beat me easily in the previous games, so I couldn’t wish for a better way to end 2022. I just thought that he hadn’t won even one set yet, in the previous duels, and I went on the court with that as my first goal. I had to be patient. It was an amazing game in the physical chapter and I loved it. It was great to finally beat him in a crazy game,” Norrie said, quoted by the BBC, about the duel with Nadal in Australia.
«It could have been the biggest and tastiest victory of my career, yes, for the player and competitor that is Rafa», said Norrie, 14th in the ATP ranking, about the clash with Nadal, who from 16 January 2023 will start defending the his men’s singles title won in 2022 at the Australian Open.
“All credit to Norrie, she did a number of things right. I still have time to improve until the Australian Open starts in two weeks.
After having already beaten Australia, in the first match of their group, 3-0, Great Britain is therefore one victory away from a second triumph, with three more games for the Spaniards to achieve it (3-0, 3-1 or 3 -2) and automatically qualify for the knockout stage of the United Cup.
In the remaining duels of the Anglo-Spanish clash, Harriet Dart will face Paula Badosa (13th in the WTA ranking) on Sunday 1 January 2023, while on the same day Dan Evans will face Pablo Carreno Busta. If Spain win both games and draw the dispute (2-2), the decision will be in a mixed doubles match between the two teams.
This United Cup kicked off with six groups of three teams each, and the group winners will face the group winners including the USA, Germany and the Czech Republic in a ‘play off’ to advance to the semi-finals of the competition.
