Ruud and Hurkacz among Day 1 winners at ATP Cup

Both Hurkacz and Ruud are top 10 ATP players who competed at the ATP Finals a month ago. They are also the best players on their team's which is why scoring wins for them is important. Casper Ruud took the court against Lajovic with his country trailing Serbia 1-0. The Norwegian proved calm easily besting Lajovic in straight sets.

Ruud was superb in the match dominating on his own serve and rarely dropping points. On Lajovic's 2nd serve he pushed the ball deep which created a lot of trouble for the Serbian. Over time he was able to break him down in both sets winning 6-3 7-5.

Hubert Hurkacz had a much easier time taking on Thanos from Greece, a player ranked outside the top 1000 in the world. He was initially set to face Stefanos Tsitsipas but the Greek pulled out of the match citing an elbow injury. It's the same elbow injury that has troubled him at the end of last year but the Greek did not reinjure it.

In a statemenet posted on the ATP Cup Twitter page, Tsitsipas said:

"The recovery from my elbow surgery in November is on track for Melbourne and today was a precautionary step to make sure I make Melbourne. We will see day by day, match by match then."

Against Thanos, Hurkacz had no trouble and quickly raced to a 6-1 6-2 finish to give Poland the 2-0 win over Greece.