Team USA overcame a stubborn Team Greece, to advance to the semi-finals of the United Cup, where they will take on the winner of the Australia v Poland tie in Sydney.
Coco Gauff opened the tie with an impressive win over Maria Sakkari. Gauff hadn’t been at her best so far this week, while Sakkari appeared to be getting back to some of her old form. However, normal service resumed, with Gauff far too strong, winning 6-3 6-2.
An upset in the men’s singles though, with Stefanos Tsitsipas turning back the clock to put in a very impressive performance, defeating Taylor Fritz 6-4 7-5. Tsitsipas was serving at 70% first serve, and while Fritz wasn’t playing badly at all, the Greek star was too good, and will get a huge confidence boost leading into the Australian Open.
Fritz admitted as much after the match.
“Yeah, it was a bit of a weird one, because I felt like I was for the most part playing pretty well. I feel like I kind of had all the shots that I needed. What I was missing balls, they didn’t feel like, I guess, bad misses. They felt good. I felt like I was striking the ball well, serving well. He served really well the first set. Just kind of a tough game that I played to get broken, but I just felt really good about my game during the match. I kind of the whole time up until it was over felt like I was going to find a way and win the match, because like I said, I feel like everything was kind of working for me, but just some errors at some bad times. Just a bit unlike me.”
It all came down to the mixed doubles, and in the end, Gauff and Christian Harrison prevailed in a thiriller over Sakkari and Tsitsipas, 4-6 6-4 10-8 in the match tie-break.
Captain of Team USA, Michael Russell was quick to speak about the team dynamics and camaraderie that might’ve got them through when the going was getting tough.
“They fought exceptionally hard like they do. The support from the whole team was amazing. It literally came down to one point, and that’s what we did the last three matches. Everyone gets behind one another, and really proud how everyone played.”
Gauff agreed, while giving a back-handed compliment to Fritz.
“I never thought I would get doubles advice from Taylor, but it was actually successful. I appreciate it. I think in those moments it’s important because literally in tiebreaks every point matters more so than maybe in a three-set format. Yeah, it definitely came down to the wire. So, yeah, I appreciate the whole team talking to us, pumping us up, and seeing things that maybe we couldn’t see on the court.”
Embed from Getty ImagesAs far as preparation for the Australian Open goes, both Fritz and Gauff were quick to heap praise on the format of the team event.
“For me personally, I always love the team events. I like the fact — obviously as well I think it’s good because we’re all coming off of an offseason.” Fritz said. “Showing up here, you’re guaranteed to get the two
matches obviously. If I’m playing somewhere else, I show up and lose that first match, I don’t get a chance to play again. Now I get to play another one.”
“Yeah, I would agree.” Gauff followed up. “I think it’s great to start the year. I think the appeal is, for example, instead of leaving Perth on a bad note in that singles, I could play better today. Obviously the team format I think does create that pressure. Not only in singles, but in mixed.
At the start of that tiebreaker I did feel the nerves for the first time this whole event, but yeah, I think it’s just feeling the nerves over and over again, and you learn how to I guess manage them. Yeah, hopefully I can be in a later stage of a Grand Slam and maybe feel those same nerves. I think thanks to the experience today, I’ll know how to manage them even better.”
No doubt both Fritz and Gauff would fancy themselves to go deep into the Australian Open. But for now, they’ll have to fly across the country to Sydney, adjust to different time zones, different courts, and different weather, before attempting to take out back-to-back United Cups.
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