What happened when Iga Swiatek and Katie Boulter played a practice set just before their match-of-the-year contender at the United Cup

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Iga Swiatek was looking to lead her side into the United Cup semi-finals for the third consecutive year.

Team Poland took a 1-0 lead in their quarter-final tie with Team GB, as Hubert Hurkacz got the best of Billy Harris in straight sets.

It was then the turn of Swiatek and Katie Boulter, with a win for the world number two enough for the Poles to secure a semi-final spot.

Having dropped the first set, Swiatek recovered to win in three, as Poland guaranteed their place in the last four, with a tie against Kazakhstan on January 4 to come.

Their United Cup clash was the first meeting between the pair, who apparently played a practice set against one another recently, with a very surprising result.

Iga Swiatek ‘couldn’t win a game’ against Katie Boulter in a practice set before their United Cup classic

Speaking ahead of Poland’s United Cup tie with Great Britain, former world number seven Andrea Petkovic revealed what she heard happened when Swiatek and Boulter played a practice set against each other.

“I heard that these two played a practice set against each other and it was Katie Boulter who took it and in fact Iga could not win a game,” she said.

“As you well know, practice and matches are two completely different things but I think it might give this woman right here [Katie Boulter] a bit of confidence.”

It may well have given WTA number 24 Boulter some confidence in the first set as she won a thrilling first-set tiebreaker.

In the end the experience of the world number two shone through as she won, sending Poland into the last four.

It was a tough defeat for Boulter, who had won all three of her matches in the group stage, as she helped carry Team GB into the knockout stages having missed out in 2024.

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She may have struggled during her practice set against Boulter, but in typical Swiatek fashion, she got the job done when it mattered.

Something that she has consistently done at the United Cup since the inaugural edition of the tournament back in 2023.

Swiatek is the only player to have scored 15 wins at the tournament, coming out on top 17 times so far, with a win percentage of 89.

Performances at that level have seen Poland reach the semi-finals in 2023, 2024, and now 2025, as she will no doubt hope to finally get over the line and bring home her nation’s first title at the event.

Poland and Swiatek will return to the court to take on Kazakhstan on January 4.