Team USA is back into the United Cup semifinals. The Americans, the 2023 tournament champions, swept China 3-0 on New Year’s Day in Perth on the strength of two straight-sets wins by Top 5-ranked duo of Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz.
World No. 3 Gauff kicked things off with a gritty 7-6(4), 6-2 win over Zhang Shuai, before Fritz clinched the tie with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Zhang Zhizhen. Doubles players Desirae Krawczyk and Robert Galloway finished off the sweep with a 6-3, 6-7(1), 10-3 win over Zhang Shuai and Sun Fajing in mixed doubles.
Gauff came from a break down three times in the first set against Zhang Shuai, a former Top 30 player who famously ended a 24-match losing streak last fall to revitalize her career. But after the veteran failed to serve out the first set at 6-5, Gauff wrestled momentum away with a lightning-quick start to the tiebreak. She won five of the first six points en route to sealing it, and never trailed in the second set after pushing out to a 3-0 lead.
“Shuai was playing amazing tennis out there. I was literally on the ground for most of the match. The harder I hit, the harder she was hitting,” Gauff said of the 35-year-old veteran, who stepped in to play singles after group-stage hero Gao Xinyu—who herself was a replacement for Zheng Qinwen—was forced out with injury.
“I felt like I couldn’t get her on defense. She was playing so aggressive on me and I felt like I had to go more on my second serves, which brought in more double faults. But if I just put it in it was a return winner so I had to take my chances.”
