How the Top-Ranked Chinese Male Endured to Force a United Cup Tiebreaker

The new year has brought the ATP and WTA Tours back from a long-needed break, with things kicking off in the land down under in Brisbane, in the form of the United Cup. 18 countries' top players, both men and women, come together in a mixed team event on hardcourt, a warm-up to the first Grand Slam of the year, The Australian Open, which comes soon after. China’s Zhizhen Zhang and Belgium’s Zizou Bergs faced off for the third time in their careers in a lengthy battle while China was down 1-0. Bergs is ranked 42nd on tour, and certainly seemed to have the 410-ranked Chinese trailblazer figured out. This match was Zhang’s big return to competition since an injury-addled 2025, and after an impressive run in the 2023 US Open, which saw him defeat the then fifth seed, Norwegian Casper Ruud, in the first round, which also helped him reach his highest ranking of 31 in 2024, the first male Chinese athlete to crack the Top 100 in the ATP. 

Where the Two Excelled

Bergs’ six-foot-one stature isn’t short by any means, and he certainly wasn’t cowed by his opponent’s six-foot-four height either. The Belgian served well, setting him up nicely throughout points. His consistency in serving saw him hold in the first set, and holding first is something that would be incredibly important for both later on. Bergs’ height gave him a sweet spot, allowing him to still serve big and sling the 18 aces that he did for the match, actually surpassing Zhang’s ace count of 12. The Belgian had an incredibly aggressive baseline game, and his mobility shone compared to his opponent’s.

Zhang also had a powerful and efficient service throughout the match, hitting no double faults and even breaking Bergs once in the entire two hours and 52 minutes, after having 10 chances. His baseline and rally aggression were a bit slower, and it seemed like he was almost reacting and enduring the Belgian’s onslaught, not setting the pace himself as much. Unforced errors were especially higher in the first set, seeming to be recalibrating his new forehand still, as the number of them he hit long and when not under pressure was many. Other than the one break, he always held, and did it emphatically.

By the late first set, just before the first set tiebreak, the two were exchanging longer and longer rallies, stretching the other thin, and hitting as hard as possible. The Belgian was doing more, and Zhang was enduring and reacting, better to some things than others. Either way, from very early in the match, it was clear that this was going to be a match-tiebreak-heavy contest. Each had incredible forehands and unshakable serves.

How Tides Slowly Turned

In some of the most enjoyable tennis of the year so far, both players found weak points in each other's game and exploited them heavily, seeking to rattle the even sharing of games. Bergs abused his Chinese rival’s long legs and began littering sharp drop shots to keep him off-balance. A wise and necessary move, as Zhang’s new forehand found the groove of consistency more and more, powerful and angled, much to Bergs’ detriment. Still, the Belgian formidable set the tone for rallies and net points, especially for himself and the other, and was rewarded with the set. It’s hard to pass or break through someone that tall, who also happens to be an Australian Open Men’s Doubles Semi-Finalist. Bergs saw the net 36 times and had a 77% win rate in those situations, a noticeable difference from Zhang’s 21 approaches, with a still impressive win rate of  71%.

With the first set gone, that was all the data Zhang needed, and serving first in the second set was the beginning of a win for him. Ever-calm and incredibly patient, he continued improving his return rate, wisely giving the shots more air, rather than hitting the hardest shot for a winner straight past the baseline. That one move alone forced more rallies, more ways for him to get a leg up. In the late first set, he also began to utilize low and deep slices, which helpfully slowed down the breakneck speed at which groundstrokes were flying between the two, and gave Zhang himself more time to recover from being pulled one way or the other.

Reciprocating drop shots, Zhang seemed to do it better against Bergs; the suddenness and shortness of a few actually left the Belgian on the floor, unable to react in time. He concealed them perfectly, and played them when he had the Belgian already stretched to an angle somewhere, slightly more effective than Bergs’ unplanned ones, stark in the middle of rallies where the other isn’t misplaced. When Bergs came to the net on his own demand, the points were heavily in his favor. Zhang's making it so his opponent never had the stability to push forward or even make it to the net helped his odds greatly.

The second and set tiebreak came, predictably, with the two’s admirable commitment to remaining unbroken, which is truly part of what made this game so competitive. Zhang started cutting back on rallies as much as possible; serve and volleying, the dropshots and slices, chipping away slowly, but surely at Bergs strong points. The Belgian seemed to know it too, and perhaps it’s that or the unending, equal tug-of-war that started to fray at his temper. That angry instability or tiredness, from hitting so hard for so long, became his undoing. 

How Zhang Sealed the Deal

The Belgian really did play remarkably and did most right. Serving first in the third did not favor him as it did in the first set, either, as it was a holding game regardless, throughout, but it saw Zhang taking bolder shots at his serve, making it so holding wasn’t quite so easy. He simply wasn’t making enough first serves, one of the things that still forced his opponent into error. Zhang was seeing easier holds, still at love, and hitting 200 km/h first serves more often, the freest thing to free points this match could have, while a few of Bergs' were more contested. Unforced errors were also found in the Belgian’s game more and more as time went on.

By the third tiebreak, Bergs’s hard hitting outlasted his shot consistency, and Zhang was ready to sweep it all away. He never faltered and grew both smarter and stronger in the inevitability of another tiebreaker, and he was ready, powerful first serves in hand. Bergs never saw a break to help himself out of the two’s dance. Additionally, for someone who the net favored so much, missing volleys hurt him too, and so close to the finish line. He was likely also shaken by the ferocity and how close Zhang came to breaking him, so many times, and now, in the third set.

He had every right to be, of course, and Zhang didn’t let 10 chances go to waste, and he finally got that break at 5-5. Smiling and laughing with Team China from start to finish, he successfully served out the set and won. Not another set tiebreak, he won the last set resoundingly, after exhausting Bergs, the final score 6-7 (2), 7-6 (3), 7-5. This win brought the countries’ tie to 1-1, and a mixed doubles would be needed to declare the winner. Zhang later played with his teammate Lin Zhu and secured their nation’s win, shooting China to first in their grouping, Sydney Group B. Canada is the third nation that makes up the competitive group.