Boulter’s win helps to see off Australia and fiance De Minaur in United Cup
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As the Great Britain and Australian teams lined up ahead of their highly anticipated United Cup tussle, Alex de Minaur and Katie Boulter savoured the last moment of peace in their household for the day, greeting each other on-court with a friendly kiss on the cheek. Then they retreated to their opposite corners of the arena and prepared to do battle.
![[Katie Boulter of Great Britain in action during her match against Olivia Gadecki of Australia.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b3d55eea4706c84fc5979aa9754d60aba51c5837/0_38_6400_3840/master/6400.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
By the end of the night, De Minaur had claimed victory in their skirmish but Boulter and her team were triumphant in the war. Although Australia defeated Great Britain 2-1 in Sydney, the home nation was knocked out of the competition as Great Britain advanced to the quarter-finals of the United Cup.
Britain knew one straight-sets success from three rubbers would be enough to see them top the group and Boulter opened the tie by clinching the first rubber with a dominant 6-2, 6-1 win over Olivia Gadecki. De Minaur pushed back with an identical 6-2, 6-1 dismantling of Billy Harris. In the decisive doubles rubber, De Minaur paired with Gadecki to close out a 6-3, 7-6 (3) win over Olivia Nicholls and Charles Broom but their victory was not enough to see them through to the knockout stages.
The British team will have no time to enjoy an impressive result considering the absence of the British men’s No 1 Jack Draper. They will return on Thursday to face Iga Swiatek’s Poland for a place in the semi-finals after Poland narrowly defeated the Czech Republic 2-1 on Wednesday.
A year ago, the United Cup set the tone for the best season of Boulter’s career as she won both of her singles matches and clinched her career best win over No 5 Jessica Pegula in the competition. She has started the new year in a similar fashion, striking the ball cleanly and playing high-octane, decisive tennis.
