Reigning Olympic champion Alexander Zverev has produced a heroic display to send Germany’s United Cup final with Poland into a deciding mixed doubles rubber with a mighty comeback win in Sydney.

Backing up after a near-6am bedtime on Sunday morning, Zverev overcame a one-set deficit, two match points and a cramping body to defeat world No.9 Hubert Hurkacz 6-7(3/7), 7-6(8/6), 6-4 in a three-hour thriller to level the tie 1-all.

Women’s world No.1 Iga Świątek earlier withstood a fierce first-set challenge from returning triple grand slam champion Angelique Kerber to put the top-seeded Poles 1-0 up at Ken Rosewall Arena on Sunday night.

The straight-sets result was Świątek’s 16th consecutive win after the 22-year-old finished a hugely successful 2023 with her 16th and 17th career titles at the China Open and season-ending championship in Mexico.

Her victory also left top-seeded Team Poland needing just one more point to secure the 2024 United Cup trophy.

That looked on the cards when Hurkacz led the seventh-ranked Zverev by a set and 6-4 in the second-set tiebreaker.

Zverev, though, dug deep to stage an astonishing Houdini act.

On the first match point, he pulled off a remarkable on-the-run forehand winner that only just clipped the line.

He served his way out of the second set to lay the foundation for a drama-charged deciding set, which Zverev won with a decisive late break of serve to clinch victory after two hours and 59 minutes.

Zverev conceded he had “absolutely no idea” how he pulled the match out of the fire, having been still on court after 2:00am on Sunday helping Germany complete an epic semi-final victory over Australia.

“I mean, also I saved a match for hitting a passing shot this much on the line. So this is how tennis goes sometimes. You win and lose by millimetres sometimes,” he said.

Playing her first event since rejoining the tour from maternity leave, Kerber performed admirably in the opening rubber, with the one-sided scoreline not a true reflection of how hard Świątek had to fight in the first set.

Kerber had multiple break points in the fourth and sixth games of the opening set, but was unable to take advantage.

Opportunity lost, the triple grand slam champion was unable to stay with the world No.1 once Świątek gained the first break of the match in the seventh game.

“I’m really proud of myself that I could win all my singles,” Świątek said.

“[Kerber] was really picking the right spot to play and she surprised me sometimes at the beginning of the set with her decision making and choices.

“I knew that she could play like that, but I didn’t have much time to get into the rhythm because she was really aiming for, sometimes, these balls inside-out, and it was pretty hard.

“But I’m happy that I felt it and with the ball change, I felt like my game can be more dynamic, and I just pushed Angelique a bit more after it was four-three.”

AAP