By Melody Gross 
An unprecedented victory by Cameron Norrie over Rafael Nadal on the final day of the calendar year allowed the Great Britain team to increase their lead to 2-0 over Spain in the duel between the two nations over the group stage of the Nations Cup, a professional competition. Mixed event held at Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney (Australia).
Nuri, 27, who added to his previous defeats with Rafa (four), 36, the current Australian Open champion, beat the former world number one and winner of 22 Grand Slam tournaments – Australian Open (Melbourne), – France (Roland Garros) England (Wimbledon) and USA (Flushing Meadows) – 2-1 with parts 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
In the previous meet, and in the females, Katy Swan, 23 years old, 145 in the WTA ranking, defeated Nuria Barezas Diaz, 70 in the ranking, 31 years old, 2-1, with partials of 3-6, 6-1 and 6-2 .
“He beat me easily in previous duels, so I couldn’t have wished for a better way to end 2022. I thought he hadn’t won him even one set, in previous duels, and I went on court with that. As a first goal. I had to be patient. It was a great match in the class. “It was great to finally beat him in a game of a real madman,” Nuri, quoted by the BBC, said of the duel with Nadal in Australia.
“It would have been the biggest and most delicious victory in my career, yes, for the player and the opponent that Rafa represents,” Nouri, who is ranked 14th in the ATP rankings, said about the confrontation with Nadal, who will start the defense from January 16, 2023. He won his men’s singles title in 2022 at the Australian Open.
“All credit to Nuri, he has done a number of things well. I still have plenty of time to improve until the Australian Open kicks off in two weeks.
Having already beaten Australia, in the first match of their group, 3-0, Great Britain are, then, one win away from a second victory, with three games left for the Spaniards to make it (3-0, 3-1 or 3-2) and automatically qualify for the knockout stage of the FA Cup.
In the remaining encounters in the Anglo-Spanish showdown, Harriet Dart will take on Paula Badosa (No. 13 in the WTA rankings) on Sunday, January 1, 2023, while on the same day Dan Evans will take on Pablo Carreno Busta. If Spain wins both matches and the dispute is tied (2-2), then the decision will be in the mixed doubles match between the two teams.
This United Cup started with six groups, with three teams each, and the winner of the group will face the winner of the group in which the USA, Germany and the Czech Republic are present, in a “play-off” to reach the semi-finals. out of competition.