Alexander Shevchenko notched a major upset Monday, before Elena Rybakina confirmed Kazakhstan’s spot in the United Cup quarter-finals.
The 24-year-old Shevchenko prevailed 6-4, 7-6(0) over World No. 11 Stefanos Tsitsipas, capitalising on an out-of-sorts performance from the Greek to put Kazakhstan 1-0 up in the Group C tie in Perth. World No. 6 Rybakina then defeated Maria Sakarri in straight sets to seal a dominant 2-0 win and eliminate Greece from the competition. Kazakhstan awaits the winner of China and Germany’s Monday evening tie.
"I think he was not at his best today but still I played really well and I found the moments to win the match," Shevchenko said. "It will definitely go in my record as one of my best wins."
"I was risking with my backhand down the line and it worked out really well. I've been dreaming of playing this event... it's unbelievable to be here playing on this court."
Shevchenko looked considerably transformed from the player who fell 6-2, 6-1 to Pablo Carreño Busta in Friday’s day session, having seemingly well adjusted to the hot conditions. Yet Tsitsipas, who played his opening clash Saturday evening under the lights, struggled physically and called a medical time-out in the second set. Despite a late fightback, in which he rallied from a break deficit, to force a tie-break, Tsitsipas fired 40 unforced errors throughout the contest, which ultimately proved the difference.
There were moments of brilliance in the opening set from Shevchenko, who came out firing. The No. 78 in the PIF ATP Rankings dragged his higher-ranked opponent across the court with ease for much of the opener, taking advantage of an error-strewn seventh game from Tsitsipas to break serve.
Tsitsipas called for the physio in the opening game of the second set, but was broken to love following treatment. As Shevchenko drew closer to his fourth win over a Top 20 opponent, Tsitsipas began to find his range. The Greek’s groundstrokes, which had deserted him for a set and a half, returned with conviction in the eighth game of the second set. Tsitsipas found a clinical return game to break back and force a tie-break, but Shevchenko recovered to win a flawless breaker and seal the pair’s maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting.
Rybakina then eliminated Greece from the competition after seeing off Sakkari 6-4, 6-3 and sealing the Group C tie in Kazakhstan’s favour.
Three of the four prior meetings between Rybakina and Sakkari stretched to three sets, but the Kazakh was under no threat of such a result in RAC Arena: After the first nine games of the match went with serve, with only one break point faced by the two players combined, Rybakina ripped off six consecutive games en route to a 1 hour and 23-minute victory.
All class 👏
— United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) December 30, 2024
Rybakina continues to dominate against Sakkari in the second set 🇰🇿
#UnitedCup pic.twitter.com/C0xYULv4WR
In only her third match since the Paris Olympics, the consequence of a shoulder injury that ended her 2024 season after the US Open, Sakkari started off much better against Rybakina than she did in her opening 6-2, 6-1 loss to Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maniero two days ago. She created a break point in the first game of the match, and the two players went tit-for-tat over the first nine games. But Sakkari blinked in the 10th, and quickly fell behind 0-40 before a double fault handed the set to the 2022 Wimbledon champion.
A pair of second-set breaks -- including in a four-deuce fourth game where Sakkari had two chances to stop Rybakina’s mid-match run -- proved enough cushion for the World No.6 to take victory, but she didn’t have things all her own way. Trailing 5-0 in the second set, Sakkari won three straight games, saving two match points along the way, but a missed overhead finally put an end to the Greek’s last stand.
Zhibek Kulambayeva and Aleksandr Nedovyesov then made it a clean 3-0 sweep inside RAC Arena by rallying to defeat Despina Papamichail and Petros Tsitsipas 2-6, 6-3, 10-?. The Kazakhstani duo trailed 1-4 in the Match Tie-break, but came up with some gutsy tennis to ensure a perfect tie.
