Sydney, Jan 4 Coco Gauff registered a comprehensive singles win over Karolina Muchova while Taylor Fritz benefitted from the abrupt retirement by Tomas Machac as the United States sealed an unassailable 2-0 lead over Czechia and a place in the final of the United Cup mixed-teams tennis tournament here on Saturday.
After Gauff began her country's semifinal tie against Czechia with a comprehensive victory against Muchova, Machac was in a great position to level the tie for his country against Fritz. But from serving for the match at 7-6(4), 5-3, the No. 25 player in the ATP Rankings lost three consecutive games to World No. 4 Fritz and then abruptly retired due to cramps and left knee pain.
“He said he’d been cramping for a couple games already. I didn’t notice, but yeah,” Fritz said in his on-court interview as quoted by the ATP website. “He was moving pretty well, but I guess he was playing through it, fighting. It’s really humid in here.
“That’s something I was thinking was a possibility if I could win that set, take it to a third I was thinking maybe someone might start cramping later on. It’s tough conditions, it was a physical match.”
The United States will now take on a Poland side including Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz in the final on Sunday. Czechia looked set to win the men's singles before things unraveled because of an injury to Tomas Machac.
After losing the first three games of the match, Machac seized control, playing with controlled aggression and the occasional flair to put Fritz on the back foot. He earned 10 break points in the match, converting two of them according to Infosys ATP Stats.
But Fritz broke the Czech's serve at 3-5 in the second set to stay alive and that proved critical in the pair's second Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting (the American was victorious in five sets at Roland Garros in 2020).
As has happened in previous matches in Sydney, Czech captain Daniel Vacek massaged his player’s legs during a changeover. But on this occasion, it was not enough to prevent Machac’s retirement.
“It’s great to be back. That was a crazy match, very physical and it’s not the way that I that I guess I want to win,” Fritz was quoted as saying by the ATP website. “But I think we’re all happy that we’re back in the final again.”
Earlier, World No. 3 Gauff engineered a dominant performance Saturday to move the United States to within a point of advancing to the United Cup final. Gauff raced through a 6-1, 6-4 victory over No.22 Karolina Muchova to improve to a perfect 4-0 against the talented Czech.
"It's never easy against Karolina," Gauff said. "The whole match I was intense and focused and I think that made the difference today. Happy to get my team off to a good start here in Sydney."
Gauff was prophetic when she looked ahead to the challenge her countryman Fritz faced against Mahac.
The Americans took home the title two years ago in the event's inaugural edition, with Fritz partnering Jessica Pegula to deliver the win.
Entering Saturday night's showdown at Ken Rosewall Arena, Gauff had never lost a set to Muchova, winning all six contested. Showing no signs of fatigue from the cross-country trip from Perth, Gauff came out of the gates hot and confident. She needed less than 10 minutes to build a 3-0 lead and closed out the opening set by saving two break points in her final game.
Gauff led 4-2 in the second set before Muchova settled in and broke the American's serve for the first time, doing it in style with a pitch-perfect volley. But Gauff's baseline defence proved too much for Muchova. The Czech handed the break back with an errant game and Gauff served out the 90-minute win.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor