sydney jan 3 afp alexander zverev and stefanos tsitsipas both crashed to defeat in their first matches of the year friday as day one of the inaugural atp cup sprung some big upsets the german world number seven was stunned by australias fastimproving alex de minaur who rallied from a set and 42 down to win 46 76 73 62 greek star tsitsipas who won the 2019 seasonending atp finals in london and is now ranked six slumped to a 76 86 76 74 loss to young canadian denis shapovalov it led to both germany and greece being defeated in their opening ties at the 24nation event where the countries are split into six groups across sydney brisbane and perth the top eight from the round robin go onto the knockout phase in sydney before one is eventually crowned the winner along with australia and canada belgium also won sweeping moldova 30 while tennis minnows norway pulled off a big 21 upset against the united states drawcards rafael nadal and novak djokovic make their debut on saturday for spain in perth and serbia in brisbane respectively its definitely up there said de minaur in brisbane when asked how the victory ranked in his career this one feels very very good i have a great team my captain my coach were all making sure i stayed in the moment and told me i would have chances earlier nick kyrgios beat janlennard struff 64 76 74 first game first match of the year is always going to be tough said kyrgios who has pledged aud 200 for every ace he serves during the australian tennis summer to help victims of bushfires that are raging across australia to be honest i was actually pretty happy with my performance tsitsipas went into his match with shapovalov also in brisbane as slight favourite with the canadian ranked nine places below him but shapovalovs lefthanded serve was working beautifully and tsitsipas faltered at key moments in both tiebreaks his serve was better than mine and a few points in the tiebreak i didnt work out what i had to do and i didnt have a clear picture of how i have to play said the greek with teammate michail pervolarakis being thrashed by felix augeraliassime in two quick sets greece lost their opening tie great fun the united states were also upset with emerging norwegian youngster casper ruud beating bigserving john isner he then backed up in the decisive doubles alongside viktor durasovic to ensure the win earlier taylor fritz had thrashed durasovic 62 62 to give the us a 10 lead the atp cup from january 312 features two ties each day in the three cities during the round robin comprising two singles matches then a doubles some usd 15 million in prize money and up to 750 singles and 250 doubles atp rankings points are at stake under the innovative tournament rules oncourt coaching is allowed and team zones are in