United Cup Day 3 - Norrie defeats Nadal, Zverev's comeback

Day 3 of the United Cup wad under the sign of hit clash between Rafael Nadal and Cameron Norrie. It was the last match of Spaniard great champion in 2022, which started brilliantly for him, but ended up with an unlucky run of health issues and losing on-court shape. Nadal started the match against the British male racuqet No. 1 quite well. He clinched the 1st set winning it 6-3 facing only one breakpoint to defend. The first serious trouble for Nadal came out in the middle of 2nd set when he lost his serve for the first time, and Norrie arrived with it into the decider. It was a smell of signs appearing during recent months, that Nadal lacks his top confidence, and it costed him losing the three-setter in 2:45 hours. Norrie created just two breakpoints in a 3rd set, but it was enough to gain the biggest career win for the Brit. He broke the streak of 10 sets lost in a row with Nadal, who ended-up his bittersweet 2022 with 5 loses out of last 7 matches he played.

One of the highlight on men side was a come-back of Alexander Zverev, who played his first competitive match against Jiri Lehecka in a tie between Germany and Czech Republic. Even though he was the first man to create breakpoint chances in both sets, it was Lehecka who clinched the win in 6-4 6-2 in just about 1.5 hours.

New Year's Eve was also the last match of the year 2022 and the first of 2023 season at once for Iga Swiatek. WTA Ranking leader closed her stunning 12 months showing a supremacy against Yulia Putintseva, breaking the score dead-lock for Poland team winning easily with a score 6-1 6-3.

Here are the current tie results for the teams who started their play in Day 3: