United Cup: Cameron Norrie, Katie Swan win singles as Great Britain lead Australia, who are without Nick Kyrgios

Great Britain made a perfect start to the United Cup as Cameron Norrie and Katie Swan won their singles matches to secure a 2-0 lead over Australia.

World No. 14 Norrie beat Alex de Minaur 6-3 6-3 while Swan overcame Zoe Hives 6-4 6-3.

The tie will be decided on Friday, with Harriet Dart able to secure victory when she faces Ajla Tomljanovic. Dan Evans faces Jason Kubler in the final singles match before a doubles contest.

“I am feeling great,” said Norrie. “First match of the year there is a lot of nerves. It is a tough task to play Demon [Alex de Minaur] in Australia on this court, him playing at home.

“He loves playing here and it was not easy. I ran a lot, absolutely drenched three shirts. A lot of running and it was humid in there. I enjoyed the atmosphere and it was nice to get the win as well.”

The United Cup features 18 teams and is played in Brisbane, Perth and Sydney.

Emma Raducanu is not playing for Great Britain, who are captained by Tim Henman, and is instead opening her 2023 season in Auckland, New Zealand.

Switzerland and Greece were also 2-0 winners on the opening day of the event.

Belinda Bencic and Marc-Andrea Huesler won their singles matches for Switzerland against Kazakhstan while Stefanos Tsitsipas edged the match of the day against Grigor Dimitrov to give Greece a strong lead over Bulgaria.

World No. 4 Tsitsipas came through 4-6 6-2 7-6(4) to clinch his 250th tour-level victory.

“A lot of drama,” said Tsitsipas.

“Both of us I think were serving extremely well during the course of the entire match. There weren’t a lot of moments that I felt like I could do something except the second set, which went really smoothly from my side.”

USA lead 2-0 against Czech Republic after wins for Madison Keys and Taylor Fritz, France are 2-0 up over Argentina, and Italy are level at 1-1 with Brazil.

The United Cup acts as preparation for the 2023 Australian Open, which starts on January 16.

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