United Cup Day 2 preview: Kerber returns, Swiatek ready to make 2024 debut

Don’t look now, but the United Cup might be in danger of peaking early.

It’s only Day 2, but Saturday’s Down Under lineup -- hey, it’s not even 2024 yet -- is, quite frankly, an astounding, appetizing smorgasbord of tennis:

There’s the dashing World No.1, a would-be-surfer, opening her season against the rising No.11-ranked player. The reigning Wimbledon champion against the WTA Tour’s Most Improved Player of 2023. Oh, and the return of a beloved three-time Grand Slam winner after an 18-month pregnancy sabbatical.

“Yeah,” said Angelique Kerber, “it’s a little bit changed in my team and in my life. I’m ready. I can’t wait to be on court and to play matches again.”

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The Group D Germany-Italy tilt in Sydney features Kerber, now 35, who gave birth to daughter Liana back in February 2023. She’ll be challenged right out of the box by Jasmine Paolini, ranked No.30, who will be trying to help Italy back to the United Cup finals.

There’s reason to believe Kerber will be competitive. She reached the semifinals at Wimbledon in 2021 at the age of 33 and took titles in 2021 and 2022. Kerber is on comfortable ground; she won the 2016 Australian Open and was a semifinalist two years later.

And she’s back with coach Torben Beltz, who happens to be Germany’s captain. Bad news for Kerber opponents: When most players were beginning last year’s North American hard-court season, she and Beltz were already working on 2024.

“I’m really excited, to be sitting here again, actually long time,” Kerber said. “I'm feeling good so far. I think for me the biggest challenge will be the weather because I was practicing indoors actually in Poland the last few months. I think I’m a player who can get ready soon in the heat. I like the heat.”

Kerber and Paolini have never played.

Top-seeded Poland swings into action in Perth against Brazil with Iga Swiatek facing Beatriz Haddad Maia. Swiatek finished 2022 with her second consecutive year-end No.1 ranking. Beatriz Haddad Maia is coming off a season when she cracked the Top 10 for the first time in her career.

In the Group A kickoff match Friday, Spain edged Brazil 2-1 with a win in mixed doubles. Haddad Maia was the only winner for Brazil, taking out Sara Sorribes Tormo in straight sets.

At 22 years and 159 days, Swiatek became the sixth youngest player to finish as the WTA’s year-end No.1 in consecutive seasons, since the rankings were first published in 1975. Swiatek is older than only Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and Caroline Wozniacki.

“Even though my ranking at the end of the year was similar to 2022, this [2023] season was totally different,” Swiatek told reporters in Perth. “Lots of ups and downs and some struggles that we had to deal with. Playing these final matches in Cancun with such a baggage on my shoulders in terms of rankings, it gave me a lot of confidence.

“I learn a lot about myself. I’m going to take it in 2024.”

Swiatek and Haddad Maia have split the only two matches they’ve played, with the Brazilian prevailing in the 2022 Toronto Round of 16 and Swiatek returning the favor last year in the Roland Garros semifinals. Both matches went three sets.

Perhaps the tastiest matchup comes from Group E in Perth: Czech Republic’s Marketa Vondrousova versus Zheng Qinwen of China. Vondrousova won her first major last year at Wimbledon and finished the year ranked No.7. Zheng won two titles and finished No.15.

The surprising victory at the All England Club thrust Vondrousova into the year-end Top 10, joining fellow Czech Republic players Karolina Muchova and Barbora Krejcikova. It was the first time since the inception of the WTA Tours rankings that three Czech players finished in the Top 10.

Vondrousova proved to be a clutch player, taking 14 of 17 matches in the 2023 Grand Slams, a formidable winning percentage of .824. In only her eighth major main draw, Zheng reached the quarterfinals at the US Open. These two have never met but given that Zheng turned 21 in October and Vondrousova is 24, you get the idea that going forward this could be happening more frequently.

When the Netherlands meets Norway in Group F, it’s Arantxa Rus versus Malene Helgo. Rus, 33, holds a 2-1 head-to-head edge over Helgo, although they split their most recent matches in 2022, at ITF events in Haabneeme, Estonia and Liepaja, Latvia.