Casper Ruud has led Norway to its first victory at this season's United Cup after winning both his singles and mixed doubles matches against Croatia in Sydney on New Year's Day.

After a convincing singles win over Borna Coric, the former World No.2 teamed with Ulrikke Eikeri to clinch the decisive mixed doubles rubber with a 6-2, 3-6, [10-7] win over Donna Vekic and Ivan Dodig.

“I was pretty fresh from the singles so I was still warm and my shoulder was feeling fine,” Ruud said. “We were playing for the win. We were close I think against the Netherlands. It was another close mixed doubles match, it went against our favor. So we tried to come out here and win this one and luckily we did. It was great. It was really fun to play with Ulrikke and I hope we could play more in the future.”

The tight match turned at 7-7 in the match-tiebreak when Ruud nailed a backhand return down the line as Dodig tried to poach. The World No.11 then closed out the match on his own serve.

“Well, that was close,” Eikeri said. “Casper was playing so well at the end. I’m just really happy we were able to pull through.”

It was a scintillating ending to a tight Group F tie. Vekic got Croatia’s campaign at the 2024 United Cup off to a winning start, overcoming Norway’s Malene Helgo 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 to kick off the day.
 
In Croatia’s first match of the tournament, World No.23 Vekic needed 2 hours and 49 minutes to battle past 539th-ranked Helgo in their first meeting, giving her country a pivotal 1-0 lead.

Vekic is now 4-0 in United Cup play throughout her career. At the inaugural edition last season, the Croat won all three of her matches in straight sets.

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It was Helgo, though, who raced to a 5-2 lead in the first set on Monday before Vekic won the next eight points to get back on serve. Vekic then had to stave off two set points at 5-4 with pinpoint aggression. After getting out of that jam, Vekic took control and squeaked out the 81-minute first set.

Helgo notched another big lead in the second set, where she also led 5-2. This time around, the Norwegian was able to close, converting her fourth set point with a service winner and leveling the encounter.
 
Vekic turned the match back around in her favor in the third set. The 27-year-old slammed a forehand winner to break Helgo at love for 4-2, and she converted her second match point at 5-3 with an additional forehand winner.

Helgo fell to 0-2 this week, having already lost to Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands earlier in the event. Helgo’s contest with Vekic was only her second career match against a Top 25 player -- her first came at the United Cup last year, when she lost to Beatriz Haddad Maia.

In the following match, Ruud won a battle of former Top 10 players with Coric 6-4, 6-1. Ruud continued his impressive start to the season after defeating Dutch No.1 Tallon Griekspoor in straight sets on Saturday. Ruud has lost serve just once through two singles matches and was not broken on Monday.

Ruud and Coric's only previous meeting came in the 2019 St. Petersburg quarterfinals, which Coric won in three sets. Ruud did not allow his opponent to battle back again, dominating behind his first serve (88 percent points won) and winning 43 percent of his return points.