{"id":94999,"date":"2026-01-03T22:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T03:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=94999"},"modified":"2026-01-03T22:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T03:30:21","slug":"united-cup-day-4-predictions-zverev-hurkacz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/03\/united-cup-day-4-predictions-zverev-hurkacz\/","title":{"rendered":"United Cup Day 4 Predictions Including Alexander Zverev vs Hubert Hurkacz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The United Cup kicks into gear on Day 4 featuring some teams kicking off group play and others fighting to keep their hopes alive. The Czech Republic begins its United Cup against the 0-1 Norway team. 1-0 Germany, led by Alexander Zverev, will square off against Poland, featuring Hubert Hurkacz&#8217;s first match in over six months. As always, LWOT has the preview and prediction for all singles matches. But who will come out on top?<\/p>\n<h2>United Cup Day 4 Predictions<\/h2>\n<h3>Czech Republic vs Norway<\/h3>\n<h4>Jakub Mensik vs Casper Ruud<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: Mensik 1-0 Ruud<\/p>\n<p>As a team, Norway fell to Australia in its first Group D matchup. However, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2026\/01\/03\/casper-ruud-finally-crack-australian-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Casper Ruud<\/a> trounched Alex de Minaur 6-3 6-3; a remarkable result on the hardcourts of Sydney. This is a tough ask for the talented but young Jakub Mensik. I love his game, but if Ruud plays like he did against de Minaur, he&#8217;ll be tough to beat.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Ruud in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Barbora Krejcikova vs Malene Helgo<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: first meeting<\/p>\n<p>Malene Helgo is currently ranked outside the top 500. The 26-year-old has never beaten a player ranked inside the top 100. Former World No. 2 Barbora Krejcikova had an injury-riddled 2025 but is looking to build off of a strong close to the season. Playing for her country, Krejcikova should have no problem downing the Norwegian.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Krejcikova in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"rCGFpd1ySsNnb4tRo0Sc0g\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2253841293\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'rCGFpd1ySsNnb4tRo0Sc0g',sig:'T2_e4ZeYm5Fo7uWtoYfC7NeU33mySr4VaxprHsAR_hI=',w:'594px',h:'391px',items:'2253841293',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Germany vs Poland<\/h3>\n<h4>Eva Lys vs Iga Swiatek<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: Lys 0-3 Swiatek<\/p>\n<p>Eva Lys opened her United Cup with a straightforward 6-2 6-2 over Suzan Lamens. However, Lys must raise her level if she wants to compete with World No. 2 <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/12\/27\/iga-swiatek-in-2025-a-year-of-inflection\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Iga Swiatek<\/a>. The 24-year-old Pole is one of the best in the sport, and with a banged up Hubert Hurkacz, she will understand the magnitude of her match.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Swiatek in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<h4>Alexander Zverev vs Hubert Hurkacz<\/h4>\n<p><strong>Head-to-Head<\/strong>: Zverev 3-1 Hurkacz<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/12\/02\/alexander-zverev-2025-season\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Alexander Zverev<\/a> is hunting for another strong season. Although a Grand Slam is his ultimate goal, he still takes much pride in playing for his country. Hubert Hurkacz&#8217;s season ended last June due to a back inury, marking his second consectuive season cut short due to injury. It&#8217;s tough to predict how players will bounce back from an injury. However, Zverev is the last player you want to play against when looking to find your form.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Zverev in 2<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Main Photo Credit: Robert Deutsch &#8211; Imagn Images<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United Cup kicks into gear on Day 4 featuring some teams kicking off group play and others fighting to keep their hopes alive. The Czech Republic begins its United Cup against the 0-1 Norway team. 1-0 Germany, led by Alexander Zverev, will square off against Poland, featuring Hubert Hurkacz&#8217;s first match in over six [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4067,"featured_media":74186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[85,15615,3976,15545,811,15415,252,17899,17900,8470,2916,15711,4315,15631,18805,19130,18450,18451,10026,5431,2373,2369,18440,18442],"class_list":["post-94999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-alexander-zverev-predictions","tag-barbora-krejcikova","tag-barbora-krejcikova-predictions","tag-casper-ruud","tag-casper-ruud-predictions","tag-czech-republic","tag-eva-lys","tag-eva-lys-predictions","tag-germany-tennis","tag-hubert-hurkacz","tag-hubert-hurkacz-predictions","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-iga-swiatek-predictions","tag-jakub-mensik","tag-jakub-mensik-predictions","tag-malene-helgo","tag-malene-helgo-predictions","tag-norway-tennis","tag-poland-tennis","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-united-cup","tag-united-cup-predictions"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4067"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94999"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95004,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94999\/revisions\/95004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}