PERTH, Jan 4 \u2014 Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka got her 2026 season off to a winning start for Japan in the United Cup, after Great Britain\u2019s Emma Raducanu pulled out of their singles clash with a fitness issue.<\/p>\n
But despite Osaka\u2019s win, GB took the match 2-1 with a deciding mixed doubles victory.<\/p>\n
Osaka was too strong for GB reserve and 276th-ranked Katie Swan, winning 7-6 (7\/4), 6-1 as Raducanu watched from the sidelines.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m proud of how I fought,\u201d Osaka said. \u201cI\u2019d never played here, it was tough.\u201d<\/p>\n
GB captain Tim Henman said Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, could appear later in the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think she\u2019s necessarily out of this tournament just yet. So we\u2019re keeping our fingers crossed,\u201d said Henman.<\/p>\n
Billy Harris, standing in for the injured Jack Draper, began with a 7-6 (7\/4), 6-3 defeat of Shintaro Mochizuki.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great to get the first win, even if there were some shaky bits. I closed it out well at the end,\u201d said Harris.<\/p>\n
Great Britain sealed the match when Neal Skupski and Olivia Nicholls defeated Yasutaka Uchiyama and Nao Hibino 7-5, 4-6, 10-7.<\/p>\n
In Sydney, Alexander Zverev clinched victory for Germany against The Netherlands as the world number three demolished Tallon Griekspoor 7-5, 6-0.<\/p>\n
Eva Lys beat Suzan Lamens 6-2, 6-2 and Germany also took the doubles for a 3-0 sweep.<\/p>\n
Playing his first match of 2026, Zverev dropped just seven points in a commanding second set.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first set, it was tough to get rhythm,\u201d said Zverev. \u201cOnce I got the chances, I did well and I\u2019m very happy with the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 18-nation mixed-team event in Perth and Sydney is a warm-up for the Australian Open which begins on January 18. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PERTH, Jan 4 \u2014 Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka got her 2026 season off to a winning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[4721,204852,748,1070,393,4884,204851,37655,1144,712,16,182750,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-673232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-alexander-zverev","11":"tag-australian-open-warm-up","12":"tag-britain","13":"tag-emma-raducanu","14":"tag-england","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-great-britain-vs-japan","17":"tag-naomi-osaka","18":"tag-northern-ireland","19":"tag-scotland","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-cup-2026","22":"tag-united-kingdom","23":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115836755004845295","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}