Team Belgium earned a stunning 3-0 sweep of Team Canada Tuesday in Sydney at the United Cup to win Group B and claim a place in the quarter-finals.
After Zizou Bergs and Elise Mertens earned impressive singles victories to clinch the tie, the Belgians partnered to defeat Cleeve Harper and Victoria Mboko 6-3, 3-6, 10-5 in a critical mixed doubles match to top the group.
"We had to beat some big players today and a big tennis country," Bergs said. "We small Belgians, we are so proud of each other today what we did as a team, especially after a rough first encounter with China. So we are happy and the group is very happy."
The Belgians woke up this morning knew to win their group they needed to sweep Canada. That was a difficult task considering Canada swept China, which beat Belgium earlier in the event. That proved inconsequential inside Ken Rosewall Arena, where Bergs and Mertens found a way to keep their United Cup alive.
"I trust this team 100 per cent and I think we can do it and we actually did it," Mertens said. "Nothing is impossible, so very happy about the doubles we played. We really were a team, we were growing."
Bergs earned the biggest win of his career to start the day, upsetting World No. 5 Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 6-2.
“Really happy with the performance. I think this shows also our strength we have. We can fall down, but we will get back up and try to be better [than] we were the day before,” Bergs said. “This is what we do, and I’m also very thankful to have that team around me.”
Bergs claimed his second Top-10 victory (2-10) in one hour and 28 minutes, having also defeated then-World No. 9 Andrey Rublev 10 months ago in Miami. A Belgian man had never previously earned a win at the United Cup.
“I actually forgot this was my second Top-10 win, so that’s really huge, actually, especially with a convincing way of playing,” Bergs said. “I just looked at it as a match. This is a a little different format, so we’re still down. We still have to win a lot of matches today, so that was more the focus and today I just had to get the job done.”
Auger-Aliassime enjoyed the best season of his career in 2025, reaching the US Open semi-finals and competing in the Nitto ATP Finals. He looked sharp in his first match of the season against Zhang, but was unable to dominate the same way against Bergs, who saved all five break points he faced.
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Experience beat youth in the second match of the day when Mertens defeated Mboko 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Her two-hour, five-minute triumph put Belgium on the brink of the quarter-finals.
After coming from a set behind to defeat China's Zhu Lin in her opening match of the week, there was no similar escape for the 19-year-old Mboko against Mertens.
The Belgian rode a stellar serving performance to a one-set lead, holding at love in each of her first four service games and breaking Mboko decisively to love in the sixth game as well. Though Mboko showed the fighting spirit that earned her 15 three-set wins in 2025 on the way to being crowned the WTA Tour Newcomer of the Year to push the match the distance, she was unable to create any break point chances in the decider either.
Mertens earned the decisive break of serve in the fourth game from a 30/0 deficit, and won a staggering 93 per cent of points played behind her first serve overall.
"I'm absolutely pumped ... I'm very happy with the point for Belgium," Mertens said. "Also well played to my opponent. She's up and coming, she's really young — she's more than 10 years younger than me!
"I'm most proud of how I [started] the beginning of the third set. I really wanted to get that point, and of course, I had the team behind me. I got a little bit of experience already, but of course you always feel a little bit nervous. That's the game, tennis, a lot of emotions, but I'm very pleased about [the win]."
