Coco Gauff Seeks United Cup Redemption With Taylor Fritz After Olympics Failure
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Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz will want to put their disappointment from the Olympics behind them at the 2025 United Cup.
The United Cup is a relatively new competition, which was first held in 2023, replacing the ATP Cup. In the inaugural edition, the United States beat everyone en route to the title.
Since then, however, the format changed. Already in the second edition it wasn't the best-of-five matches format that decided the ties, but instead the best-of-three.
As one of the nations that benefitted from their depth in the competition, the chances of Team US decreased. Still, they were among the favorites in 2024 but couldn't win the competition, as Germany triumphed.
In 2025, they will return as one of the favorites, and this time, Coco Gauff will lead the team's WTA side, as the 20-year-old player will make her debut at the competition. She will be joined by Taylor Fritz, who was part of the victorious team in 2023, even securing the winning point.
Speaking ahead of the third edition of the tournament, Fritz recognized that the United States team can't benefit from the depth anymore, but he's excited to compete alongside Gauff.
"I'm looking forward to it. [The format] has changed a bit over the years; the year that we won, we could use our team's depth a lot more to help us."
"Now a lot more things can go wrong for the favourite team when it's just one [singles] match each and a deciding mixed doubles. So I'm still excited to play. I'm glad that Coco's here this year."
"We've got to focus on getting out of the group, because we didn't even do that last year. We've got to look at the teams in front of us before we start looking too far ahead."
For Gauff, this will mark her debut at the competition. Unlike Fritz, who is also a regular participant at the United Cup and played the ATP Cup previously, the 2023 US Open champion didn't have many chances to compete in a team environment apart from the Billie Jean King Cup.
She teamed up with Fritz this year at the Olympics, but the duo lost before the medal rounds, leaving Paris empty-handed. Now, Gauff hopes to do better than at the Olympics.
"It's my first time playing, so I'm super excited. I like playing in team events, so hopefully, I can represent my country well. It's very cool playing with Taylor. We're both coming off a good year-end. And it'll be our second time playing together. So hopefully, we can do even better than the Olympics."
The 20-year-old player also values the matches that she will get to play. Her opponents in the group stage will be Leylah Fernandez and Donna Vekic, meaning she will play against some of the best players on the WTA Tour already in her first two matches.
"Just to get some matches against some top players. We both have to play pretty high-ranked players in the first two matches, so it will be a good test before the Australian Open."
