The 2023 United Cup champion, the United States, is one match from claiming another trophy at the mixed-teams event.
After Coco Gauff began her country's semi-final tie against Czechia with a comprehensive victory against Karolina Muchova, Tomas Machac was in great position to level the tie for his country against Taylor Fritz. But from serving for the match at 7-6(4), 5-3, the No. 25 player in the PIF ATP Rankings lost three consecutive games to World No. 4 Fritz and then abruptly retired due to cramps and left knee pain.
“He said he’d been cramping for a couple games already. I didn’t notice, but yeah,” Fritz said in his on-court interview with Mark Petchey. “He was moving pretty well, but I guess he was playing through it, fighting. It’s really humid in here.
“That’s something I was thinking was a possibility if I could win that set, take it to a third I was thinking maybe someone might start cramping later on. It’s tough conditions, it was a physical match.”
Earlier, World No. 3 Gauff engineered a dominant performance Saturday to move the United States to within a point of advancing to the United Cup final. Gauff raced through a 6-1, 6-4 victory over No.22 Muchova to improve to a perfect 4-0 against the talented Czech.
"It's never easy against Karolina," Gauff said. "The whole match I was intense and focussed and I think that made the difference today. Happy to get my team off to a a good start here in Sydney."
Gauff was prophetic when she looked ahead to the challenge her countryman Fritz faced against Mahac.
"It's a tough match, Machac is a great player," Gauff said. "I have full confidence in Taylor. He's a great player, he has one of the best mindsets on Tour. I don't take that lightly. After spending time with him at the Olympics on the mixed court, and then today and this past week, this is just the beginning. That's why today I have a lot of confidence he'll pull out the win. And if not, I'll be ready to play mixed."
The Americans took home the title two years ago in the event's inaugural edition, with Fritz partnering Jessica Pegula to deliver the win.
Entering Saturday night's showdown at Ken Rosewall Arena, Gauff had never lost a set to Muchova, winning all six contested. Showing no signs of fatigue from the cross-country trip from Perth, Gauff came out of the gates hot and confident. She needed less than 10 minutes to build a 3-0 lead and closed out the opening set by saving two break points in her final game.
Gauff led 4-2 in the second set before Muchova settled in and broke the American's serve for the first time, doing it in style with a pitch-perfect volley. But Gauff's baseline defence proved too much for Muchova. The Czech handed the break back with an errant game and Gauff served out the 90-minute win.
Fritz then took the court to try to seal the tie and made a flying start, claiming the first three games of the match. However, Machac seized control, playing with controlled aggression and the occasional flair to put Fritz on the back foot. He earned 10 break points in the match, converting two of them according to Infosys ATP Stats.
But Fritz broke the Czech's serve at 3-5 in the second set to stay alive and that proved critical in the pair's second Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting (the American was victorious in five sets at Roland Garros in 2020).
As has happened in previous matches in Sydney, Czech captain Daniel Vacek massaged his player’s legs during a changeover. But on this occasion, it was not enough to prevent Machac’s retirement.
Machac arrived in Sydney having missed two weeks of his offseason training due to illness. Upon his arrival at the United Cup, he did extra fitness training to build up his reserves and it helped him battle for three hours with Casper Ruud before defeating Hubert Hurkacz and Flavio Cobolli.
The United States will now take on Iga Swiatek, Hubert Hurkacz and Poland on Sunday for the trophy.
“It’s great to be back. That was a crazy match, very physical and it’s not the way that I that I guess I want to win,” Fritz said. “But I think we’re all happy that we’re back in the final again.”
