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’s Emma Raducanu pulled out of their singles clash with a foot injury. But despite Osaka’s win, GB took the match 2-1 with a deciding mixed doubles victory in the Sunday clash.<\/p>\n
Switzerland came through the deciding mixed doubles against Italy, with a 7-5, 4-6, 10-7<\/a> win by Belinda Bencic<\/a> and Jakub Paul<\/a> over Sara Errani<\/a> and Andrea Vavassori<\/a>, enough to see the team through 2-1 into the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n “There was great emotion from the team. We were into it with our hearts, and it showed,”<\/b> Bencic said.<\/p>\n Against GB, Osaka<\/a> was too strong for GB reserve and 276th-ranked\u00a0Katie Swan<\/a>, winning 7-6(4), 6-1<\/a> as Raducanu<\/a> watched from the sidelines.<\/p>\n “I’m proud of how I fought,”<\/b> Osaka said. “I’d never played here; it was tough.”<\/b><\/p>\n GB captain Tim Henman<\/a> said Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, could appear later in the event.<\/p>\n “She struggled with her foot at the end of last year. She’s been practising in London and is very close. Tomorrow (against Greece) is a bit up in the air.”<\/b><\/p>\n Billy Harris<\/a>, standing in for the injured Jack Draper<\/a>, began with a 7-6(4), 6-3<\/a> defeat of Shintaro Mochizuki<\/a>.<\/p>\n “It’s great to get the first win, even if there were some shaky bits. I closed it out well at the end,” <\/b>said Harris.<\/p>\n Great Britain sealed the match when Neal Skupski<\/a> and Olivia Nicholls<\/a> defeated Yasutaka Uchiyama<\/a> and Nao Hibino<\/a> 7-5, 4-6, 10-7<\/a>.<\/p>\n Swiss veteran Stan Wawrinka<\/a>, 40 and playing his final season, matched it with 23-year-old Italian Flavio Cobolli<\/a> until a double-fault on match point proved to be the downfall of the three-time Grand Slam winner.<\/p>\n Wawrinka, playing his second three-hour match in as many days, lost 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-6 (4)<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bencic spoiled the 30th birthday of Jasmine Paolini<\/a> 6-4, 6-3<\/a>. “I had to convince my mind after losing to her at the end of 2025,”<\/b> the winner said.<\/p>\n “It was about mentality out there, but I knew I could do it.”<\/b><\/p>\n In Sydney,\u00a0Alexander Zverev<\/a> clinched victory for Germany against the Netherlands as the world number three demolished Tallon Griekspoor<\/a> 7-5, 6-0<\/a>.<\/p>\n Eva Lys<\/a> beat Suzan Lamens<\/a> 6-2, 6-2<\/a>, 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 “The first set, it was tough to get rhythm,”<\/b> said Zverev.<\/p>\n “Once I got the chances, I did well, and I’m very happy with the win.”<\/b><\/p>\n Canada beat China, with Victoria Mboko<\/a> defeating Zhu Lin<\/a> 2-6, 6-2, 6-0<\/a> and Felix Auger-Aliassime<\/a> overcoming Zhang Zhizhen<\/a> 6-4, 6-4<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 18-nation mixed-team event in Perth and Sydney is a warm-up for the Australian Open, which begins on January 18th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka got her 2026 season off to a winning start for Japan in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-674081","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-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115838980232187071","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674081","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=674081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}