Bergs survives Wawrinka to ship Belgium-Switzerland United Cup SF to the combined

United Cup

Bergs survives Wawrinka to ship Belgium-Switzerland United Cup SF to the combined

Winner to play both USA or Poland in Sunday’s closing

January 10, 2026

Zizou Bergs has despatched the Belgium-Switzerland United Cup semi-final to a deciding combined doubles after a gruelling 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3 win over Stan Wawrinka in brutal 41-degree Sydney warmth Saturday.

Earlier, Belinda Bencic stored her undefeated season-opening run on the United Cup in tact in dramatic trend as she outlasted Elise Mertens 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(0) to place 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 within the third set to assert the decisive break seemingly from nowhere in a match that had featured simply six break factors to that stage.

Wawrinka, the 40-year-old three-time Grand Slam champion, has performed impressed tennis to kick off his farewell season. However breaking serve simply as soon as throughout 4 matches has proved pricey as he slipped to 1-3 in singles matches throughout the match.

“Stan performed rather well and I actually needed to battle it out at the moment,” Bergs mentioned.

“It was laborious to regulate the ball on return and he served excellent; it was very laborious for me. To get rhythm could be very robust. I’m simply completely happy I discovered the answer.”

Bergs will staff with Mertens within the combined doubles in opposition to Bencic and Jakub Paul, who’ve gained all three combined rubbers (two of them tie-clinching) this week.

Bergs is trying to erase the heartache of his final outing within the Davis Cup semi-finals, when he let slip seven match factors in opposition to Italian Flavio Cobolli whereas trying to ship the tie to a deciding doubles.

Bergs, 26, gained 31 matches final yr, greater than doubling his profession match wins tally. He begins the yr at No. 42 within the PIF ATP Rankings, simply three locations under his career-high.

Enjoying his twenty fifth and closing season, Wawrinka started the United Cup with an impressed 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 units to Sebastian Baez in a quarter-final in Perth.

Bencic improved to 7-0 throughout singles and combined doubles throughout the match after beating Mertens.

Mertens beat Bencic of their solely earlier assembly, again in 2021, however the 28-year-old Bencic who got here into the lean in additional impervious kind, with a 6-0 report throughout Switzerland’s first three ties. Whereas Mertens had back-to-back robust tussles in opposition to Victoria Mboko and Barbora Krejcikova after a straight-sets win over Zhu Lin, Bencic hadn’t come near dropping a set in opposition to Leolia Jeanjean, Jasmine Paolini and Solana Sierra to guide Switzerland to the ultimate 4.

She was two video games away from an uncomplicated 6-3, 6-4 victory earlier than Mertens pushed the match the space. However the Belgian then denied Bencic two probabilities to knot the second set at 5-5 earlier than breaking serve, claiming a set during which she beforehand noticed a 3-1 lead erased.

That set the stage for a dramatic third set, during which Mertens got here from 3-1 down, saved a pair of break factors that might’ve given Bencic a 4-1 lead, and was two factors away from the win with Bencic serving at 30-30, down 6-5. However Bencic gained the final 9 factors of the match following an in-the-moment determination to alter her racquet to a freshly-strung one at that stage, wrapping up victory in 2 hours and 37 minutes.

“It looks like 170 kilos fell off my shoulders — I used to be so careworn; I actually needed to do nicely, and at the moment I felt a lot strain to not let my staff down,” Bencic mentioned afterwards.

On the racquet change, she sheepishly confessed: “My mind turned off and let my instincts take over.”

“I believe it was only a feeling, and I performed with my again in opposition to the wall,” she added. “I used to be actually targeted on myself, on respiration, and I am tremendous completely happy that I stayed robust within the essential moments.”