After winning their group and succeeding in the City Final, the United States took on Poland in the United Cup semifinals and proved to be a better team quite quickly.
Poland was relying on the WTA world no. 1, Iga Swiatek, and their highest-ranked ATP player, Hubert Hurkacz. However, after the three-time Grand Slam champion lost to Jessica Pegula on Friday, all the pressure was on Hurkacz, who faced off against Taylor Fritz.
Both players, who are ranked in the Top 10 of the ATP Rankings, met during the off-season in Saudi Arabia and it's the American who will remember that match much better as he defeated his opponent comfortably in two sets.
Once again, it was a match of good serves between the two as fans in Australia saw only four break points in the first set. Both players had two chances as those of Hurkacz would mean a victory in the set too.
However, he couldn't use his chances, and the set had to be decided in a tie-break. It all came down to one mini-break, which Fritz got on a set point to win the tie-break 7-5 and take the first set.
In the second set, it was only the Polish player who had a chance to break his opponent, but he couldn't do it again and so once again a tie-break had to be played.
Fritz got away quite well with an early 3-1 lead. However, he got broken twice and Hurkacz was soon leading 5-4 with two balls in his hand. But the American fought back once again to win the match 7-6(5), 7-6(5) and secure his country's spot in the final.
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