Botic van de Zandschulp and Tallon Griekspoor made Dutch tennis history on Thursday at the Tata Open Maharashtra as both men progressed to the semi-finals in Pune. They became the first Dutch duo to reach the semi-finals of the same ATP Tour event since Dennis Van Scheppingen and Martin Verkerk at Amersfoort in 2004.

“It’s been a long time,” van de Zandschulp said of the achievement. “I cannot remember how long it’s been, but it’s pretty nice for the country.”

Van de Zandschulp has yet to drop a set in his Pune debut, having beaten Flavio Cobolli 7-5, 6-4 in his first match. After facing six break points in that contest, the World No. 35 did not face any against Marterer as he won 85 per cent of his first-serve points.

“I served well. It’s always helping when you serve well and you get a lot of free points,” he assessed, later adding that he enjoyed the slower, flatter evening conditions compared to his daytime Wednesday match. “[I was] really consistent, more consistent that the last match, so I’m happy with that.”

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The 27-year-old will seek his second tour-level final (Munich 2022) when he takes on Benjamin Bonzi — a 7-6(5), 6-4 winner against sixth seed Filip Krajinovic — in Friday’s semi-finals. Van de Zandschulp reached three semis last season but is still in search of his first ATP Tour crown.

Eighth seed Aslan Karatsev also advanced on Thursday with a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Spain’s Pedro Martinez. Karatsev has won all six sets he’s played this week and will seek to continue that streak against Griekspoor in the semis.

Game. Set. Match.

Meet the next generation of tennis giants in Netflix’s new tennis series, Break Point, which documents a game-changing year in the sport with unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to a select group of the world’s best players.

Netflix on Thursday released a trailer of the show, featuring some of the players as well as legends Andy Roddick and Maria Sharapova, who provide insight. The series will premiere on 13 January.

“The hardest thing in sports is expectation,” Roddick said.

The trailer takes viewers through the pressure facing the world’s brightest young talents and the indescribable intensity of competing at the highest levels in tennis.

Break Point, produced by the team behind F1: Drive to Survive, gets up close and personal with the featured players throughout the 2022 season on the ATP Tour and Hologic WTA Tour.

Which players will be featured in Netflix’s Break Point?

Felix Auger-Aliassime, Paula Badosa, Matteo Berrettini, Taylor Fritz, Ons Jabeur, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Nick Kyrgios, Casper Ruud, Aryna Sabalenka, Maria Sakkari, Sloane Stephens, Iga Swiatek, Frances Tiafoe, Ajla Tomljanovic and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Jannik Sinner has not dropped a set this week en route to the quarter-finals of the Adelaide International 1. But Kyle Edmund and Thanasi Kokkinakis have not been his only opponents.

The Italian on Wednesday enjoyed a battle of Now Gen against Past Gen at the ATP 250 event, where he hit with 99-year-old Henry Young, who on 11 January will compete in Melbourne against 98-year-old Ukrainian Leonid Stanislavskyi in the Battle of the Centurions, part of the Tennis Plays For Peace charity event.

“It’s obviously my pleasure. Seeing a man 99 years old playing incredible tennis, having such strength and willpower to stay on the court — yesterday was also hot — for me was a real pleasure,” Sinner told ATPTour.com. “I know he’s [playing] a very important match raising money in Melbourne, so it’s my pleasure obviously to play with him.

“I wish him all the best not only in the tennis court, but off court, which is most important. It was a lot of fun.”

Special moment to hit with Henry today, 99 years old and #1 in the world! Henry is playing against 98 year old Ukrainian Leonid Stanislavskyi on Rod Laver Arena next week to raise money for people in Ukraine. Both are an inspiration to us all! Good luck 💪🏼#ClashOfTheCenturions pic.twitter.com/91FUz1JX80

— Jannik Sinner (@janniksin) January 4, 2023

Sinner added that Young told him he took up the sport aged 70.

“It’s very nice seeing people also a little bit older age trying some new things,” Sinner said. “He was hitting very well to be honest. The high balls, which are usually very tough, for him were very, very easy. He doesn’t seem 99 years old. He was moving great, he had a lot of fun hopefully and I wish him all the best.”

The Italian will continue his tournament on Friday when he faces American Sebastian Korda for a place in the last eight.

By winning the City Final on Wednesday night in Sydney with a tidy 4-1 score over Great Britain, the Americans soon made the short commute back to their hotels, looking forward to an off day. Meanwhile, in Brisbane and Perth, four nations battled to join them in Friday’s United Cup semi-finals in Sydney.

In the end, Poland defeated Italy and Greece upended Croatia — with both ties decided by mixed doubles featuring four of the world’s best singles players. Italy advanced courtesy of the country’s superior percentage of sets won over Croatia, and will join them. Poland and Italy made their way 500-plus miles down the east coast of Australia from Brisbane, while Greece had to navigate more than 2,000 miles from Perth, situated on the west coast.

The matchups and overall record after three ties: U.S. (13-2) vs. Poland (10-5) and Greece (11-4) vs. Italy (10-5).

Here’s a closer look at the two semi-finals:

United States vs. Poland

The numbers say Poland has a 6-3 head-to-head advantage in the four singles matches, but four of those wins belong to Iga Swiatek over Jessica Pegula.

All four victories came last year in big spots — the Miami semi-finals, Roland Garros quarter-finals, US Open quarter-finals and San Diego’s semi-finals. Only San Diego went three sets. In terms of ranking, this is the class of all the semi-final matches, World No. 1 Swiatek versus the third-ranked Pegula.

Two of the other singles matchups — Hubert Hurkacz-Taylor Fritz and Magda Linette-Madison Keys — are deadlocked at 1-all. The difference for the United States could be Frances Tiafoe, who is a combined 6-0 in singles and mixed doubles. Tiafoe is ranked No. 19, 241 spots higher than Poland’s Daniel Michalski, who has gone 0-3 in singles play.

If the teams split the four singles matches, it could come down to a blockbuster mixed doubles confrontation between Swiatek and Hurkacz and Fritz and Pegula (2-0). The Polish duo clinched their victory over Italy to advance to the semi-finals.

“It was Iga,” Hurkacz said. “She was just playing really amazing, and she was returning Lorenzo [Musetti]’s serve really powerful, and that was helping a lot to put some pressure on the net. There wasn’t a lot of tactics there.”

Added Swiatek: “I don’t consider myself a leader. I’m still kind of getting used to it, but I also got used to the pressure, especially last year. I’m trying to cut it off on my matches to just focus on my game, and it’s going pretty well. Hopefully I’m going to be able to do that on my next matches.”

Friday, Jan. 6

Ken Rosewall Arena

[2] Iga Swiatek (POL) vs [3] Jessica Pegula (USA), 1 p.m. (Head to head: Swiatek, 4-1)

[2] Daniel Michalski (POL) vs [3] Frances Tiafoe (USA), to follow (Head to head: 0-0)

Saturday, Jan. 7

Ken Rosewall Arena

[2] Hubert Hurkacz (POL) vs [3] Taylor Fritz (USA), 10 a.m. (Head to head: 1-1)

[2] Magda Linette (POL) vs [3] Madison Keys (USA), to follow (Head to head: 1-1)

Mixed doubles match: Teams TBD

Greece vs. Italy

Once, again the head-to-head records here could be deceptive.

Overall, Greece holds a 3-1 advantage in the teams’ head-to-head singles records. Heading into the semi-finals, World No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas leads No.16 Matteo Berrettini 2-0. Tsitsipas prevailed at the 2019 Australian Open and, two years later, in Rome.

Perhaps more relevant is Tsitsipas’ 6-0 record in singles and mixed doubles (with Maria Sakkari). That equals Sakkari and Tiafoe for the best mark among all remaining players.

Elsewhere, you can make a case for Italy. Martina Trevisan holds a 1-0 edge over Sakkari, a three-set match at Roland Garros in 2020. That was on the red clay in Paris, a surface that is far friendlier to Trevisan’s game. A fast hard court in Sydney might be another matter.

Similarly, Despina Papamichail has a 1-0 record against Lucia Bronzetti — but that came five years ago at an ITF $15,000 event. And then there is the disparity between the rankings of Lorenzo Musetti (No. 23) and his opponent, Michail Pervolarakis (No. 506).

Greek captain Petros Tsitsipas was asked if he’d allow a small celebration after his top-seeded team took out Croatia to advance to the semi-finals.

“No celebrations until we lift the trophy,” he said.

Italian Captain Vincenzo Santopadre didn’t yet know the fate of his team when he met the press following the loss to Poland.

“We just have to wait,” he said. “I say what I said before, we have to be happy and continue — if there is the chance to continue, it would be really nice because I’m sure that if it happens, we will enjoy again.”

Friday, Jan. 6

Ken Rosewall Arena

[1] Maria Sakkari (GRE) vs. [5] Martina Trevisan (ITA), 7 p.m. (Head to head: Trevisan, 1-0)

[1] Michail Pervolarakis (GRE) vs [5] Lorenzo Musetti (ITA), to follow (Head to head: 0-0)

Saturday, Jan. 7

Ken Rosewall Arena

[1] Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) vs [5] Matteo Berrettini (ITA), 5 p.m. (Head to head: Tsitsipas, 2-0)

[1] Despina Papamichail (GRE) vs [5] Lucia Bronzetti (ITA), to follow (Head to head: Papamichail, 1-0)

Mixed doubles match: Teams TBD

New season, same script for Novak Djokovic.

Trailing World No. 64 Quentin Halys 2-5 after a competitive first set at the Adelaide International 1 Thursday, did anyone really doubt that the Serbian would come back? With the Frenchman serving for the set at 5-3, Djokovic went into lockdown mode, breaking to love after teasing four consecutive unforced errors from the 26-year-old’s racquet.

From there it was a business-like performance from the man who spent a record 373 weeks atop the Pepperstone ATP Rankings as he closed out a 7-6(3) 7-6(5) win to set a quarter-final clash with explosive Canadian shotmaker Denis Shapovalov. To his credit, Halys remained competitive throughout, but ultimately slipped to 0-12 in career meetings against Top 30 opponents.

“It was a great performance from my opponent today and I want to congratulate him for a great fight. He played like a Top 10 opponent,” Djokovic said. “He was serving big, hitting his spots and on a fast court like this it’s tough to break, so two tie-breaks is a realistic score in today’s match. I’m glad to overcome the challenge.”

Djokovic, who has won 20 of his past 21 matches, claimed the third title of his career in Adelaide in 2007. This week he seeks career title No. 92. He next faces Shapovalov Friday with a potential blockbuster semi-final with Daniil Medvedev on Saturday.

Looking ahead to his next match, Djokovic said, “Denis is one of the most complete players out there. He has a very dynamic style of tennis. He has a big serve, comes to the net, is comfortable playing at the back of a court and he’s a great athlete. I haven’t played him for a while so I’m looking forward to it. Every match from here gets tougher.”

Ahead of the Djokovic clash, Shapovalov is likely to hit the practice court in search of rhythm on his first serve. The Canadian put just 55 per cent of first serves into play against Australian Rinky Hijikata in the first round, when he also threw in nine double faults. In Thursday’s 6-3, 6-3 win over another qualifier, World No. 88 Roman Safiullin, Shapovalov cut his double fault count to two but still put only 57 per cent of first serves into play.

Despite losing nine of 10 matches between Rome and Montreal last year, Shapovalov finished with a respectable 34-26 mark on the season, and at No. 18 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

Djokovic leads Shapovalov 7-0 in their ATP Head2Head series, but the 23-year-old has been very competitive in their three matches since 2020.

Wednesday ended in celebration for Team Italy despite a narrow defeat to Poland in the United Cup’s Brisbane City Final. Falling 3-2 in a tie decided by the mixed doubles finale, the Italians earned a place in the semi-finals with the best overall record among the day’s three losing teams — beating out Croatia and Great Britain to join winners Poland, the United States and Greece in Sydney for the Final Four that begins Friday.

A 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 win for Matteo Berrettini against Hubert Hurkacz put the Italians ahead early in the tie before Lorenzo Musetti powered past Daniel Michalski 6-1, 6-1. Musetti teamed with Camilla Rosatello for the mixed doubles decider, but the pair was turned back 6-1, 6-2 by the star Polish team of Hurkacz and WTA World No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

The loss finalised Italy’s record at 10-5 across three ties in Brisbane — matching that of Team Croatia, which fell 3-2 against Greece in the Perth City Final. Great Britain finished at 8-7 after a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the United States.

With Italy and Croatia level on match records, the Italians advanced courtesy of their superior percentage of sets won. They will now travel to Sydney to take on Stefanos Tsitsipas, Maria Sakkari and Team Greece in the semis. The full semi-final schedule is below.

ORDER OF PLAY – FRIDAY, JANUARY 06, 2023
KEN ROSEWALL ARENA start 1:00 pm
[2] I. Swiatek (POL) vs [3] J. Pegula (USA) 
[2] D. Michalski (POL) vs [3] F. Tiafoe (USA) 

Not Before 7:00 pm
[1] M. Sakkari (GRE) vs [5] M. Trevisan (ITA) 
[1] M. Pervolarakis (GRE) vs [5] L. Musetti (ITA)

ORDER OF PLAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 07, 2023
KEN ROSEWALL ARENA start 10:00 am
[2] H. Hurkacz (POL) vs [3] T. Fritz (USA) 
[2] M. Linette (POL) vs [3] M. Keys (USA) 
Mixed Doubles Match: POL vs USA 

Not Before 5:00 pm
[1] S. Tsitsipas (GRE) vs [5] M. Berrettini (ITA) 
[1] D. Papamichail (GRE) vs [5] L. Bronzetti (ITA) 
Mixed Doubles Match: GRE vs ITA 

Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas held firm in a tense mixed doubles decider against Borna Gojo and Petra Martic in Perth on Wednesday night to clinch Team Greece a spot at the United Cup Finals in Sydney.

The Greek pair’s 7-6(6), 6-4 win sealed its nation a 3-2 win in the Perth City Final after a day of drama that saw the four singles matches split.

“I am so happy and proud of this team, I just cannot put it in words,” said Sakkari. “Coming in here, it’s the first tournament of the year, you don’t know what kind of form you are in, but I think we saw that we are in pretty good form!”

“I’m happy we pulled this through. I’m proud of the team,” said Tsitsipas. “Fighters is what defines us. That first big step we took here in Perth is going to remain memorable. I’m happy we started in Perth, I wished for it… Let me just say, we might be in Sydney, but our heart remains here.”

🇬🇷 HELLAS 🇬🇷@mariasakkari and @steftsitsipas take out Martic & Gojo 7-6 6-4 to advance to the #UnitedCup semifinals 🔥 pic.twitter.com/uKEIBOgEl9

— United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) January 4, 2023

The WTA No. 6 Sakkari and ATP No. 4 Tsitsipas were both dialled in on serve throughout their 94-minute victory, winning 88 per cent (42/48) of points behind first serves, facing no break points and sending down eight aces.

It was Sakkari and Tsitsipas’ third mixed doubles victory of the week in Perth, where the pair also played together at the 2019 Hopman Cup. Sakkari admitted that familiarity with RAC Arena as well as becoming increasingly used to each other’s games contributed to their impressive performances as a duo this week.

“I think our first mixed doubles was on this court,” said Sakkari. “Our games are just clicking. We know each other really well and we have great chemistry on the court, and I think that’s the key. Of course, the more we develop as players, that’s also something that adds up and makes us play a lot better on the mixed doubles for sure.”

Team Greece will next take on Team Italy in the semi-finals across Friday and Saturday in Sydney, where Team Poland and Team USA will contest the other final-four tie.

Photo Credit: Paul Kane/Getty Images

Earlier in the day session, Donna Vekic had kicked off the tie with an emphatic 6-2, 6-0 defeat of Despina Papamichail in just 64 minutes, giving Croatia an early 1-0 lead. However, Tsitsipas drew level at 1-1 after coming from 4-1 down in the third set to beat Borna Coric for the first time 6-0, 6-7(4), 7-5.

Sakkari then gave Greece a 2-1 lead after defeating Martic 6-3, 6-3, before Gojo triumphed 6-4, 6-2 against Stefanos Sakellaridis to level the tie at 2-2 and force a mixed doubles decider.

The clash of the two teams’ top WTA players saw Sakkari deliver a fine serving performance to shut out Martic. The WTA No.6 landed 67 per cent of her first deliveries and won 73 per cent of those points — a recipe for success, as she was broken just once and only faced break points in two games. By contrast, Martic’s serve was not the weapon it can be, with only 54 per cent of her first serves landing in.

Both players fired 19 winners apiece, but Sakkari demonstrated both more consistency and better execution on big points. A series of Martic errors paved the way for Sakkari to break for 5-3 in the first set, and the two-time major semi-finalist kept a firm grasp of momentum by unleashing on a sequence of forehands to capture Martic’s serve again at the start of the second set.

Sakkari gave Martic few opportunities on return, and the Croat was largely unable to take her half-chances. Some fine shotmaking staved off the double break at the start of the second set, but Martic could not build on a 0-30 lead on Sakkari’s serve in the next game. Neither could she convert two break-back points in the penultimate game of the match.

Gojo hit back on Croatia’s behalf with an authoritative win over ATP No. 803 Sakellaridis. The World No. 144’s heroics had sealed their defeat of France one day earlier, and Gojo completed an unbeaten Perth singles campaign in style.

Sakellaridis, 18, had thrilled his teammates and a partisan Greek crowd on his United Cup debut with a three-set upset of Belgium’s Zizou Bergs. But an error-strewn opening service game saw him drop serve immediately against Gojo, and from there the teenager found himself chasing the scoreboard in vain.

The powerful Gojo dominated behind his own serve, winning 100% of the points behind his first delivery and only facing one break point late in the second set. Once Sakellaridis had settled, he demonstrated impressive fluidity from the baseline to find 16 winners to Gojo’s 13.

But it wasn’t enough to turn the match around. Gojo scored another early breakthrough in the second set, navigating five deuces to break Sakellaridis for 2-1, and cruised from there, sealing match point with a booming smash.

View the full semi-final schedule below.

ORDER OF PLAY – FRIDAY, JANUARY 06, 2023
KEN ROSEWALL ARENA start 1:00 pm
[2] I. Swiatek (POL) vs [3] J. Pegula (USA) 
[2] D. Michalski (POL) vs [3] F. Tiafoe (USA) 

Not Before 7:00 pm
[1] M. Sakkari (GRE) vs [5] M. Trevisan (ITA) 
[1] M. Pervolarakis (GRE) vs [5] L. Musetti (ITA)

ORDER OF PLAY – SATURDAY, JANUARY 07, 2023
KEN ROSEWALL ARENA start 10:00 am
[2] H. Hurkacz (POL) vs [3] T. Fritz (USA) 
[2] M. Linette (POL) vs [3] M. Keys (USA)
Mixed Doubles Match: POL vs USA 

Not Before 5:00 pm
[1] S. Tsitsipas (GRE) vs [5] M. Berrettini (ITA) 
[1] D. Papamichail (GRE) vs [5] L. Bronzetti (ITA) 
Mixed Doubles Match: GRE vs ITA