Taylor Fritz and Coco Gauff secured a spot for the US team in the United Cup semifinal with a 2-0 win over China.
World number 3 and last year’s WTA Finals champion Coco Gauff overcame Zhang Shuai 7-6 (7-4) 6-2 to move the USA to a 1-0 lead.
Zhang earned an immediate break in the first game of the opening set, but Gauff broke back to draw level to 3-3. Zhang earned a second break in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead. Gauff pulled the break back to draw level to 4-4, but she lost her serve again to fall behind 5-6. Gauff recovered by breaking back forcing the first set to the tie-break. Gauff earned two mini-breaks to open up a 3-0 lead in the tie-break. Zhang pulled one break back on the fourth point for 1-3. Gauff raced out to a 5-1 lead with her third mini-break. Zhang won two consecutive points for 3-5 with another mini-break. Gauff sealed the tie-break 7-4 with her fourth mini-break after 59 minutes.
Gauff broke Zhang twice in the second set to open up a 3-0 lead. Zhang pulled one break back in the fourth game for 1-3. Gauff earned her third break in the seventh game and served out the win on her fifth match point after 1 hour and 34 minutes. Gauff improved to 3-0 in her head-to-head matches against Zhang.
“Against Shuai, I had to hit an ace to win the point. She was playing amazing tennis out there. The harder I hit, the harder she was hitting. I felt like I could not get her on defense. She was playing so aggressive on me and I felt like I had to go more on my second serve, which brought in more double faults, but if I just put in it was a return winner, so I had to take my chances”, said Gauff.
Last year’s US Open and Nitto ATP Finals runner-up Taylor Fritz beat Zhang Zhizhen 6-4 6-4 to move the US team to a 2-0 lead sealing a spot in the semifinals for the US team. Fritz converted two of his nine break points.
Fritz dropped only two points on his serve and converted just one of the eight break points he earned in the seventh game to win the opening set 6-4.
Fritz dropped just two points on his serve in the second set and converted his only break point in the seventh game again to seal the second set 6-4.
“Towards the end of last year I made a lot of improvements to my game and I started to believe in the average level I felt I could produce every day to beat a lot of the higher-ranked guys who before I thought I had to play incredible to beat”,said Fritz.
The US team will take on the winners of the tie between Italy and Czechia in Sydney on Friday.
