Monday MTO: It is finished

In the Monday MTO, we sweep through all the weekend action and pass out flower and, if need be, flaming poop bags.

United Cup: Poland

d. Switzerland 2-1

Team Poland enjoyed the most anime ending to their United Cup quest. Let me explain to you non-weebs: a common trope in anime and manga is the earnest hero discovering the power of friendship to triumph over...villains or...life, I guess? From ONE PIECE to NARUTO to DEMON SLAYER, this is the hero's journey: no matter how good you or your intentions are, you cannot do it alone. And insisting that you can, even when it comes from a selfless place, is not heroic or even satisfying.

I mean, you get where I'm going with this, right? No one loves United Cup as much as Iga Swiatek. I mean, maybe Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari, but they haven't tasted the success Poland has. They also haven't, therefore, experienced in the heartbreak. In the first year, 2023, they dazzled the crowd up in Brisbane only to suffer from the quick turnaround to Sydney, where Jess Pegula and Taylor Fritz blitzed Iga and Hubie to stop them in the semifinals. In 2024, Hubi had two championship points to seal a 2-0 win over Germany and faltered, and the Poles finished runner-up. Last year, they ran into the American wall in the final, losing to Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz.

The narrative (arguably) was it was Iga who was the heart and soul of the team, whose clinical results put them in winning positions only for the team to let her down. She was the star who had no room for error because she couldn't count on her teammates to pick up the slack if she faltered. And that pressure seemed to weigh on her over the last couple of years.

And so, as the anime gods would have it, Poland's run to the 2025 United Cup title was, inarguably, a team effort. If Iga doesn't get the win over Maya Joint in the quarterfinals, Poland would have been out. If Hubi – WHO WAS PLAYING HIS FIRST MATCHES SINCE 'S-HERTOGENBOSCH – doesn't go beast mode over the weekend to tally wins over Taylor Fritz and Stan Wawrinka – Poland is out.

And if Hubi and Iga don't step aside for Jan Zielinski and Katarzyna Kawa in the mixed, WHO THE HECK KNOWS, because Zielinski and Kawa were absolute MVPs, coming through to go undefeated in the tournament, beating Coco and Christian Harrison and then Belinda and Jakub Paul to seal the wins for Poland.

"It's really incredible I think obviously personally but also massive day for Poland, for Polish tennis," said Hubi. "I think it's really unique and amazing we showed how strong we are as a Polish country in tennis. To win that trophy, it tastes incredible. We came very close two times. This just feels amazing.

"Just so grateful to the whole team, everyone supporting each other, just being together and enjoying the competition."

And so, in short:

More United Cup takeaways:

• Had Belinda Bencic nearly single-handedly pulled off a 10-0 run to list Switzerland to the title, that whole essay up there would have been about my favorite anime moments where a single character goes absolutely HAM. I also probably went on a BLUE LOCK tangent, which is a soccer manga/anime that turns the "power of friendship" trope on its head. That did not happen, but let's take a moment to note this week for Belinda, who will move back in the Top 10 on Monday. She's primed to be a menace in Melbourne, and it's easy to forget that she made the Wimbledon semifinals last year.

• Lots of questions flying around Iga's form after she went 3-2 with some rough losses to Coco – that's eight straight sets lost to Coco now – and Belinda, and getting taken deep into a third by Eva Lys. ESPN (via AAP) had a curious headline saying she's injured, but here's what she said:

Q. Iga, can we check in before you go to Melbourne on your fitness and health.

IGA SWIATEK: Everything is fine. Just super sore. I guess first tournament of the year, it costs the body a bit differently than during the season. But I had similar experience last year also.

I'll just get good recovery, couple days off. Also I know these team events. I love them but they really take a lot of energy from you. I still need to figure out how to balance that maybe in the future (smiling). I get so excited on the bench, yeah, it's almost like playing a match honestly.

Yeah, it's all good. I for sure physically wasn't in the second set the best version of myself. Belinda really used it to push me. For sure, I'll try to get that covered for Australian Open and we'll see.

• Coco had a rollercoaster week. On one hand, she looked spotty in the early matches, including a three-set loss to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, but then she blitzed Iga, 6-4, 6-2. The doublefaults and forehand issues were present in spots, but again...she blitzed Iga.

• To paraphrase the great Sir Andy Murray, Taylor Fritz tried his tits off. But he was completely transparent about being undercook and under an injury cloud with knee tendinitis. This is a bummer. But he was battling with everything he had in all his matches.

• Stan Wawrinka got that first win over Arthur Rinderknech as well as a main-draw wildcard into the Australian Open. But he went winless for the rest of the tournament.
• Most impressive below the line ATP performance: Zizou Bergs! What a week for him:

• Maria Sakkari looked good and primed for a rebound. She shouldn't be ranked outside the Top 50. Also looking good: Stefanos Tsitsipas, Elise Mertens.
• Most impressive below the line performance: Eva Lys. She really went toe-to-toe with Iga over three sets and was pounding that ball with remarkable pace. Watch out for her in the Week 1 in Melbourne:

Brisbane: Aryna Sabalenka

Every WTA Top 10 player had a wobble in the first week except for the one at the top. Aryna rolled to her third Brisbane title and she didn't even come close to losing a set. (ESPN)

After dispatching her two Top 20 opposition in Madison and Mookie, Aryna faced off against Marta Kostyuk in the most awkward final of Week 1. I'm not sure anyone had a good time watching this one given their history, unless you truly love mess which....you're a real one.

On match point, Sabalenka celebrated by pointedly kissing her biceps, a not-so-veiled response to Marta's widely spread misquotes, which even after being clarified, still weren't the BEST way to describe your opponents in the locker room. But whatever, I just really want to not talk about this anymore. I like fun beef, like the Copy Pasta Bowl we got in Round 1. I don't like not-fun beef. This is the latter for me.

Speaking of Kostyuk: She had just one Top 10 win last year. She scored three in a row in Brisbane, beating Amanda Anisimova, Mirra Andreeva, and Jessica Pegula. That will make you sit up and take notice.

And Karolina Muchova! Back-to-back Top 10 wins over Ekaterina Alexandrova and a streak-snapping victory over Elena Rybakina, who was on a 13-match win streak. WE TAKE NOTE!

Brisbane: Daniil Medvedev

My brothers and sisters in Christ, we are so back. In the last four months, Daniil Medvedev has won two ATP titles, this after going on a 882-day title drought. Were they both ATP 250s? Yes. Am I going to just blow past that? Yes. You gotta win to get that winning feeling and build momentum and the guy is doing that.

Cool stat: Medvedev is the third active player to win 20 tour-level hard-court trophies, joining Novak Djokovic (72) and Jannik Sinner (21). Thanks ATP!

Hong Kong: Alexander Bublik

Welcome to the Top 10(?!) Sasha Bublik. (ATP)

Seeded No.1 in Hong Kong, Bublik rolled to his fifth title since June and ninth overall.

This is from Carole Bouchard's media dispatches – they were super helpful and very entertaining reads and I think tournaments should consider this format rather than antiseptic end-of-day press releases – from Hong Kong:

At 28, Bublik is clearly enjoying the best tennis of his life, winning four titles last year, being now 34-9 since Roland-Garros, and clinching his 9th ATP title on Sunday. Beating World No.7 (who will be World No. 5 on Monday) Musetti in a final right before the Australian Open is also a statement made to the rest of the field for the first Grand Slam of the year. He didn’t hide his emotions after winning that title, as it finally felt real that he was a Top 10 player. Something he used to joke about.

“I'm overwhelmed a bit. You never know how many titles you're going to win, and I always say after each one that if it's the last one, then I have to be really happy, because when you win on the ATP Tour, where everyone's playing well, it's always a gift. (...) You play for the title, which is important, and then you also play for something even bigger than this. I mean, my team and I used to joke about being in the Top 10 throughout my seven years in the top 50. Like, ‘imagine if one day I'm going to touch the top ten, ’ but we never actually thought of how to do it. We've always been going with the flow, going more with the enjoyment side instead of hard work and dedication. But then I dropped a bit in the ranking and realized that I don't like to be there as it's more demanding, and I have to play more, relax less. So then the shift came, and here we are. I achieved the joke we had, and now we need to reset, as I achieved the year's goal in the first week of the season! We need to see what the next goal is.”

Bublik stopped Lorenzo Musetti's quest to win his first title since 2022, but the Italian's win over Marcos Giron assured him a spot in the ATP's TOP 5 (?!) on Monday. He's just the third Italian man to ever crack the Top 5, behind Adriano Pannatta and Jannik Sinner. That's two Italians in the Top 5.

If the Pennetta, Schiavone, Vinci, and Errani squad were "The Golden Girls" what do we call this history-making squad of Italian men? In honor of the Golden Globes, I'm going to call them the Saja Boys for now on.

Auckland: Elina Svitolina

In case you haven't noticed, the No.1 seeds all won their respective tournaments in Week 1. Make of that what you will, but Elina Svitolina did as top-notch veterans do and held off the young field in Auckland to win her 19th WTA title.

The win takes Svitolina up to No.12, which is damn impressive. With Kostyuk making the final in Brisbane – her first final since Stuttgart last year – that's a very nice Week 1 for Ukraine.

And with the run to the final, Wang Xinyu moves up 14 spots in the ranking to sit back in the Top 50 at No.42. She was down MPs to beat Alex Eala in the semifinals.

UP NEXT: WEEK 2

Adelaide WTA 500

Top seeds: Madison Keys, Mirra Andreeva, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Emma Navarro (Top seed Jessica Pegula withdrew after the draw, Andreeva took her spot at the top of the draw; Kostyuk also withdrew, both citing change of schedule)
Defending champion: Madison Keys

Adelaide ATP 250

Top seeds: Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Tommy Paul, Francisco Cerundolo, Tallon Griekspoor
Defending champion: Felix Auger-Aliassime (not playing)

Auckland ATP 250

Top seeds: Ben Shelton, Casper Ruud, Cameron Norrie, Luca Darderi
Defending champion: Gael Monfils

Hobart WTA 250

Top seeds: Emma Raducanu, McCartney Kessler, Iva Jovic, Ann Li
Defending champion: McCartney Kessler

Australian Open qualifying

Qualifying is already underway in Melbourne. You can take a look at the draws here.

** NOT POSTING A PDF DRAW ON THE OFFICIAL GRAND SLAM TOURNAMENT PAGE SHOULD BE A VIOLATION OF A RULE SOMEWHERE ANYWHERE.