Coco Gauff & Taylor Fritz Lead Team USA To United Cup Semi-Finals
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Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz once again proved to be too strong to overcome for their opponents, as they already reached the semi-finals of the 2025 United Cup.
The United States won the inaugural United Cup, but back then, it was played in the best-of-five matches ties. Last year, when the format changed to the best-of-three matches ties, Team USA didn't even get through the group stage.
Now, they improved that result by reaching the quarter-finals. In the quarter-finals of the tournament, their opponent was China. During the week Xinyu Gao played some inspired tennis in the women's singles, but she was not chosen in this tie.
Instead, Shuai Zhang took on Coco Gauff in the first match of the tie. So far this week, Gauff has been undefeated, and that applies also to the mixed doubles. In singles, her winning streak now dates back to her last match of the round-robin stage at the 2024 WTA Finals.
After beating Leylah Fernandez and Donna Vekic in singles at the United Cup, the 20-year-old American player had no issues against Zhang either, even though the start of the match was rough for her.
She started by losing her serve immediately in the first game of the match, but she was able to break back immediately. At 3-3, Gauff felt the pressure again, losing her serve once more.
Again, she managed to recover, but she lost her serve again, falling behind 5-6. Like the previous two times, Gauff again quickly recovered by breaking back, forcing a tie-break in the first set of the match.
She was the better player in the tie-break, quickly mini-breaking her opponent twice to lead 3-0. From there, it was smooth sailing to the finish line, as she won the tie-break 7-4.
In the second set, Gauff was the dominant player. She broke Zhang's serve two times, leading 3-0, and even though she lost it once after that, another break of serve meant an easy win for Gauff, who triumphed 7-6(4), 6-2.
Taylor Fritz, who had already lost one singles match at the event, then had a relatively straightforward task. If he could beat China's Zhizhen Zhang, Team USA would be through to the semi-finals.
Fritz has been incredibly solid on his serve throughout the week, and he remained solid also in this match. In the first set, he lost only two points on his serve, while creating eight break point chances.
Those eight chances were needed, as he used only one, but that was enough to win the first set of the match 6-4. In the second set, Fritz's impressive serving didn't stop.
He once again lost only two points on his serve, and this time, he used his first and only break point to win the match 6-4, 6-4, securing USA's semi-final spot at the 2025 United Cup.
The team will now have two days off, moving from Perth to Sydney, before they take on the winners of the tie between Italy and the Czech Republic.
