ATP Tour

Switzerland beats Belgium to reach first United Cup final

Belinda Bencic has led Switzerland into its first United Cup final after a heroic performance in searing Sydney heat Saturday against Belgium.

After surviving a third-set tie-break in the opening singles against Elise Mertens, Bencic teamed with Jakub Paul to win their third decisive mixed doubles of the tournament by defeating Mertens and Zizou Bergs 6-3, 0-6, 10-5 after regrouping from a second-set collapse when they won just 12 points.

Bencic, 28 and mother of 21-month-old daughter Bella, has won all four singles and all four mixed doubles matches during the event. In the first set of Saturday’s mixed, Bencic won both deciding points on her serve when Mertens failed to put a return in play.

Doubles World No. 81 Paul, who won just six tour-level doubles matches last year, rose to the occasion, poaching with confidence and hitting several down-the-line winners at crucial moments.

In Sunday’s final inside Ken Rosewall Arena, the Swiss will play the winner of tonight’s second semi-final between defending champion United States and two-time finalist Poland.

Despite anchoring the team’s path to the final with eight wins, Bencic was quick to praise others on her team, especially her unheralded mixed partner Paul.

“He’s so brave it’s unbelievable,” Bencic said. “I tell him to go [for it] and he actually goes. It’s crazy.

“The team spirit is amazing and it starts with the captain. He’s supporting all throughout my match and then he goes out to play his own match and then he’s back to support the doubles. It starts with him but then with all the energy from our bench it gives us such a spirit to win.

Paul said, “It’s easy to find the energy with this team. It’s great to play with Belinda. Hats off to her to play for almost three hours and then come out for the doubles. And great job by Stan to keep Zizou as long as possible on the court.”

Earlier, Bergs sent the Belgium-Switzerland United Cup semi-final to a deciding mixed doubles after a gruelling 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3 win over Stan Wawrinka in brutal 41-degree Sydney heat.

In the first match of the day, Bencic kept her undefeated season-opening run at the United Cup in tact in dramatic fashion as she outlasted Elise Mertens 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(0) to put Switzerland up 1-0.

Backing up his consecutive wins over World No. 5 Felix Auger-Aliassime and No. 18 Jakub Mensik, Bergs rallied from 40/0 on Wawrinka’s serve at 4-3 in the third set to claim the decisive break seemingly from nowhere in a match that had featured just six break points to that stage.

Wawrinka, the 40-year-old three-time Grand Slam champion, has played inspired tennis to kick off his farewell season. But breaking serve just once across four matches has proved costly as he slipped to 1-3 in singles matches during the tournament.

“Stan played really well and I really had to battle it out today,” Bergs said.

“It was hard to control the ball on return and he served very good; it was very hard for me. To get rhythm is very tough. I’m just happy I found the solution.”

Bergs will team with Mertens in the mixed doubles against Bencic and Jakub Paul, who have won all three mixed rubbers (two of them tie-clinching) this week.

Bergs is looking to erase the heartache of his last outing in the Davis Cup semi-finals, when he let slip seven match points against Italian Flavio Cobolli while attempting to send the tie to a deciding doubles.

Bergs, 26, won 31 matches last year, more than doubling his career match wins tally. He begins the year at No. 42 in the PIF ATP Rankings, just three places below his career-high.

Playing his 25^th and final season, Wawrinka began the United Cup with an inspired third-set tie-break win over World No. 27 Arthur Rinderknech in Perth and a third-set tie-break loss to Cobolli. He fell in straight sets to Sebastian Baez in a quarter-final in Perth.

Bencic improved to 7-0 across singles and mixed doubles during the tournament after beating Mertens.

Mertens beat Bencic in their only previous meeting, back in 2021, but the 28-year-old Bencic who came into the tilt in more impervious form, with a 6-0 record across Switzerland's first three ties. While Mertens had back-to-back tough tussles against Victoria Mboko and Barbora Krejcikova after a straight-sets win over Zhu Lin, Bencic hadn't come close to losing a set against Leolia Jeanjean, Jasmine Paolini and Solana Sierra to lead Switzerland to the final four.

She was two games away from an uncomplicated 6-3, 6-4 victory before Mertens pushed the match the distance. But the Belgian then denied Bencic two chances to knot the second set at 5-5 before breaking serve, claiming a set in which she previously saw a 3-1 lead erased.

That set the stage for a dramatic third set, in which Mertens came from 3-1 down, saved a pair of break points that would've given Bencic a 4-1 lead, and was two points away from the win with Bencic serving at 30-30, down 6-5. But Bencic won the last nine points of the match following an in-the-moment decision to change her racquet to a freshly-strung one at that stage, wrapping up victory in 2 hours and 37 minutes.

“It feels like 170 kilos fell off my shoulders -- I was so stressed; I really wanted to do well, and today I felt so much pressure to not let my team down," Bencic said afterwards.

On the racquet change, she sheepishly confessed: "My brain turned off and let my instincts take over."

"I think it was just a feeling, and I played with my back against the wall," she added. "I was really focused on myself, on breathing, and I'm super happy that I stayed tough in the important moments."