BRISBANE: Italian Matteo Berrettini edged Italy ahead in their United Cup city final in Brisbane winning a thrilling three-set match over Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz in Brisbane on Wednesday.

Berrettini showed he will be a real contender for the Australian Open with his 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win over the towering world number 10.

Earlier, top-ranked Iga Swiatek outlasted Martina Trevisan to level the tie after rising star Lorenzo Musetti produced an almost flawless display of serving to put Italy in front in the first match of the day.

Magda Linette will be trying to level the final for Poland once again when she plays Lucia Bronzetti in the second women’s singles ahead of a mixed doubles.

Berrettini, who was once as high as six in the world, has slipped out of the top 10 but showed he is on track to get back to his best.

“I’m really happy with my performance -- I think the level was really high, he’s a great player,” Berrettini said. “We’ve fought in the past and I’m sure we’re going to fight in the future.”

In the opening match, Musetti lost only three points on serve to beat Poland’s Daniel Michalski 6-1, 6-1 in just 57 minutes.

The winners of the city finals in Brisbane, Sydney and Perth progress to the semi-finals of the inaugural mixed teams tournament along with the best-performing losing finalist.

The 20-year-old Musetti, who climbed to 23 in the world in 2022, had far too much firepower for his opponent, blasting 17 winners past the 260th-ranked Michalski.

“I was so focused today on the match and the serve was really good,” he said. “But with every shot I had a great feeling for the ball so I think I played the best match so far.”

However, Poland struck back when Swiatek battled past Trevisan 6-2, 6-4.

The three-time Grand Slam winner raced through the first set but was forced into a fight in the second, finally claiming victory in 1hr 51mins.

“It became tight at the end and I felt like she had her chances as well,” Swiatek said. “My goal is to be more consistent and keep the same level of tennis right to the end.”

In Sydney, world number three Jessica Pegula put the US 2-1 up over Britain when she crushed Harriet Dart 6-2, 6-0.

Pegula was ruthless in her 57-minute demolition of the 98th ranked Dart.

“I think I did everything really well today -- some days you come out firing and you feel really good,” she said.

A tenacious Madison Keys gave the US an early lead over Britain before Cameron Norrie struck back when he won a high-quality match against Taylor Fritz.

Keys lost the first set to Katie Swan before recovering to win a gruelling match 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 in 2hrs 18mins.

Norrie and Fritz played an enthralling encounter which was in the balance until the Briton broke at 4-4 in the final set then served it out to claim a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 victory.

Frances Tiafoe will try to clinch the tie when he plays Dan Evans in the final singles match.

Croatia took the first point in Perth when Donna Vekic downed Greece’s Despina Papamichail 6-2, 6-0 before Stefanos Tsitsipas levelled the score by beating Borna Coric 6-0, 6-7 (4-7), 7-5.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2023