SYDNEY, Australia -- Nuria Parrizas Diaz defeated Australia's Maddison Inglis 6-1, 6-3 to buoy Spain's spirits on Day 5 at the United Cup. The victory leveled the final tie in Group D at 1-1 after Alex de Minaur stunned World No.2 Rafael Nadal earlier in the evening.
De Minaur delivered a stunning performance to overcome Nadal 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 to give Team Australia a 1-0 lead. With a capacity crowd watching on, the 23-year-old rallied from a set-and-a-break down to earn the biggest win of his career by Pepperstone ATP Ranking after two hours and 44 minutes.
“There’s no secret this is my favourite court in the entire world” 🤩
— United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) January 2, 2023
Hometown hero @alexdeminaur is in dreamland #UnitedCup pic.twitter.com/6koIDIdQj7
In a thrilling encounter, De Minaur showed an abundance of grit and quality to delight his raucous home supporters. The World No.24 scampered around the baseline to hang in rallies, shortening his backswing off his groundstrokes to take away time from Nadal and turn the tables. With his statement victory, the 23-year-old improved to 1-3 in his ATP Head2Head series against Nadal.
Though neither Spain or Australia can advance out of the group after Great Britain sealed their position as Group D winners on Sunday, Parrizas Diaz stepped up and delivered Spain a morale-boosting victory.
Parrizas Diaz rebounded well from her 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 loss to Great Britain's Katie Swan in her opening match. The World No.70 dominated the 179th-ranked Australian with a blistering baseline game to earn her first win of the season. Parrizas Diaz saved all five break points she faced, while taking advantage of Inglis' second serve. Inglis won just 19% of her second-serve points and was broken four times in the 1 hour and 26 minute encounter.
The tie will conclude on Tuesday, with Spanish No.1 Paula Badosa to face Zoe Hives and Pablo Carreno Busta scheduled to face Jason Kubler.
Well, well this worked out for @alexdeminaur 👀🎙
— United Cup (@UnitedCupTennis) January 2, 2023
It's Team Australia's turn to hit the Diary Room#UnitedCup | @TennisAustralia pic.twitter.com/VVA6EiorKE
The ATP Tour contributed to this report.