A few days ago, after Team Italy had wrapped up a trip to the United Cup quarterfinals, reporters asked members who they’d prefer to play. The two potential options mentioned were Great Britain and Australia.
“I don’t like to say,” Jasmine Paolini said. “I don’t like also to think which team or which opponent is going to be better. When you think one is better, you play against him or her — and you lost.”
As it turns out, after a quirk in the qualifying scenarios came to fruition, Italy meets the Czech Republic on Friday in Sydney, the last of the quarterfinals.
Poland was supposed to take on the best second-place team in Sydney, but that was the Czech Republic, whom they had just beaten in Group B play. According to United Cup rules, teams from the same group cannot meet again until the final. Thus, Great Britain and the Czech Republic swapped spots, setting up Thursday’s Poland-Great Britain tie (won by Poland) and Friday’s tasty tilt between Italy and the Czech Republic.
The winner will advance to Saturday’s semifinals in Ken Rosewall Arena against the 3-0 United States. Kazakhstan (3-0) takes on Poland (3-0) in the other Final Four matchup.
Meanwhile, it’s the quarterfinals in Brisbane, featuring No.1 Aryna Sabalenka. The Auckland, New Zealand quarterfinals are headlined by No.1 seed Madison Keys and No.7 Naomi Osaka.