Iga Swiatek says it is absolutely not true that her intention was to throw Katie Boulter off her game when she called a medical timeout early in the third set of their United Cup thriller. On Thursday,

Great Britain will face Poland in the quarter-finals of the United Cup on Thursday despite losing their final group match 2-1 to hosts Australia. After their win over Argentina in the team competition on Monday, Britain knew one straight-sets success from three rubbers in Sydney would be enough to see them top the group.

Poland returned to the semi-finals of the United Cup mixed team tournament for a third successive year after hard-fought singles victories in Sydney handed them an unassailable 2-0 lead over Britain on Thursday.

The British number one had a break point at 4-4 in the deciding set against Poland’s five-time grand slam winner.

Iga Swiatek battles through exhaustion to secure a crucial win for Poland at the United Cup, advancing to the semifinals where she’ll face Kazakhstan.

British No 1 Katie Boulter came agonisingly close to a career-defining victory before falling to world No 2 Iga Swiatek in an epic United Cup quarter-final clash in Sydney. The British hopeful pushed the five-time Grand Slam champion to the limit in a thrilling contest that stretched just short of three hours.