Among the most important players who took to the court on Sunday 31 December 2023 at the United Cup was the ATP No.1 Novak Djokovic, who immediately demonstrated that he is in excellent shape. The Serbian champion dominated the interesting challenge with Zhizhen Zhang without too much effort. In the first set the Chinese player tried to hang on to the score, giving up serve only once in the sixth game. The break allowed Nole to manage and win the set 6-3. In the second the Belgrade native was able to raise the level further, immediately going up 4-0 and then closing 6-2. However, the Serbian team was unable to secure overall success after the first two matches. Olga Danilovic, who certainly didn’t start with the predictions, lost rather clearly 6-4, 6-2 to the young Quinwen Zheng.
Djokovic© Paul Kane / Stringer Getty Images Sport
What decided everything was the mixed doubles, the last match of 2023, which recorded the presence of all four tennis players playing singles. Djokovic and Danilovic were able to withstand the Chinese comeback and claim a significant victory 6-4, 1-6, 10-6. After the match, as we can see in the video (click here) shared by Italian newspaper La Repubblia, the Serbian champion, his team and his opponents said goodbye to 2023 and welcomed 2024 by doing the countdown on the court with the crowd!
Counting down to 2024 with Team Serbia in Perth! 🇷🇸🎉@DjokerNole #UnitedCup pic.twitter.com/AZNDOq0TD4
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) December 31, 2023
The other results
Everything is back in balance in group C. After the victory over Australia, Great Britain did not secure first place in the difficult match against the United States. The Americans will now play their chances of advancing to the next stage of the competition against the home team. Despite the unexpected defeat of Jessica Pegula by an inspired Katie Boulter 5-7, 6-4, 6-4, the USA were able to overcome the English thanks to Taylor Fritz, victorious in the match against Cameron Norrie for 7-6, 6-4, and the mixed doubles played by his two singles players. Pegula and Fritz, however losing the first set 6-1, overcame the Boulter-Skupski pair by winning the tie-break of the second and then the tie-break match 10-7. It was the mixed doubles that also decided the match between Canada and Chile. Leylah Fernandez prevailed against Seguel 6-2, 6-3, while in the other match Nicolas Jarry beat Steven Diez with a score of 7-5, 6-4. Felix Auger-Aliassime suffered knee problems and did not take to the court. The Fernandez-Diez doubles closed the score at the end of a very tight battle against the Seguel-Barrios Vera duo: 7-5, 4-6, 10-8 the result which gave Canada the first victory.