WTA number 3 Coco Gauff and ATP number 4 Taylor Fritz won their singles matches to send the US team into their second United Cup final after they won this team tournament in its inaugural edition in 2023.
Gauff recorded her fourth win over US Open semifinalist Karolina Muchova by the scoreline of 6-4 6-1 to give the US team a 1-0 lead. Gauff is 8-0 in sets against her Czech rival. None of these sets went to tie-break.
Gauff went up a set and a break to build a 6-1 4-2 lead, but Muchova pulled the break back to draw level to 4-4. Gauff won the final two games to seal the second set 6-1.
“It’s never easy to play against Karolina, The whole match I was intense and focused, so I think that made the difference today. I am happy to get my team off to a good start”, said Gauff.
Taylor Fritz advanced past Tomas Machac 6-7 (4-7) 6-5 after the Czech player was forced to retire from the match due to cramps and left knee pain. Machac held two match points as Fritz was serving to stay in the match at 2-5 in the second set. Fritz saved them with unreturnable serves and broke Machac’s serve at 3-5 in the second set. The US player won the next four games and was serving up 6-5 15-0 when Machac decided to retire.
“That was obviously a crazy match. It was very physical. That’s not the way I wanted it to end, but we are happy to be back in the finals again. He said he had been cramping for a couple of games already. It’s really humid here. That’s something I was thinking of as a possibility, if I could win that set, take it to a third, I was thinking someone might start cramping. It was tough conditions”, said Fritz.
Machac missed two weeks of training during the off-season due to illness. He did extra fitness training and managed to beat Casper Ruud in a three-hour battle before earning wins over Hubert Hurkacz and Flavio Cobolli.
The United States will face Poland in the United Cup final.
Denis Kudla and Desirae Krawzyk beat Patrik Riki and Gabriela Knutson 7-5 6-0.
