Cameron Norrie beat Rafael Nadal for the primary time and Katie Swan noticed off Nuria Parrizas-Diaz to place Great Britain 2-0 up over Spain of their United Cup group stage encounter.
Norrie got here from a set all the way down to beat the 22-time Grand Slam champion 3-6 6-3 6-4 on the Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney.
The 27-year-old had misplaced his 4 earlier conferences with Nadal.
“He wager me simply the previous few occasions, so it is a good way to finish the yr for me,” stated Norrie.
“I used to be considering I’d by no means received a set earlier than in opposition to him and I got here out firstly wanting to try this.
“I needed to keep tremendous affected person. It was a brilliant bodily match and I loved it. It was enormous to get by means of that one and eventually beat him. It was a loopy match.”
Australian Open champion Nadal, 36, cruised by means of the primary set, however Norrie broke Nadal’s serve within the sixth sport of the second set and held his personal to stage the competition.
World quantity 14 Norrie broke early within the deciding set and saved two break factors whereas main 3-2 earlier than serving out for victory.
Nadal will try to defend his Australian Open title when the primary Grand Slam of the yr begins in Melbourne on 16 January.
“All credit score to him that he did plenty of issues very properly,” stated Nadal.
“There’s a approach to enhance however I’ve time earlier than the Australian Open begins in two weeks.”
Swan, 23, additionally got here from a set down as she beat Parrizas-Diaz 3-6 6-1 6-2.
It was a assured efficiency from the world quantity 145 Swan, who’s ranked 75 locations under the 31-year-old Parrizas-Diaz.
After a 3-0 victory over Australia of their opening group stage content material, Britain want one win from their remaining three matches in opposition to Spain to achieve the knockout phases.
World quantity 13 Paula Badosa will face Harriet Dart within the first match on Sunday earlier than Dan Evans performs Pablo Carreno Busta, with the deciding combined doubles to comply with if required.
The inaugural mixed-team match entails six round-robin teams of three groups.
Great Britain, Spain and Australia are competing for an opportunity to play the United States, Germany or the Czech Republic in a play-off to achieve the semi-finals.
by 
