The United States team secured its place in the semi-finals of the United Cup mixed teams' tennis tournament in Perth, Australia, defeating Greece 2-1 in their quarter-final match on Wednesday. The deciding point came from a mixed doubles victory. In another quarter-final contested in Perth, Switzerland faced Argentina. The United States will now travel to Sydney for the semi-finals, where they will compete against the winner of the Poland-Australia quarter-final.
Quarter-final: United States vs. Greece
The United States entered the quarter-finals for the third time in four years. The tie against Greece was decided in the mixed doubles rubber after the singles matches resulted in a 1-1 split.
Singles Matches
Coco Gauff (USA) vs. Maria Sakkari (Greece)
Coco Gauff gave the United States an early lead by defeating Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-2 in a match that lasted one hour and 26 minutes at RAC Arena. Gauff recorded 68 percent of her first serves in play and won 76 percent of those points. She also reduced her double faults to six, down from 14 in her previous match. This victory gave Gauff a 6-5 lead in her head-to-head record against Sakkari. Sakkari, currently ranked No. 52, had achieved wins over Naomi Osaka and Emma Raducanu earlier in the week.
Gauff commented on her performance, stating, "Definitely a much better match today. Last match, I just tried to erase it. That’s the beauty of this tournament, and having a team like Taylor [Fritz] and Christian [Harrison] that gave me the chance to stay in the tournament and be able to prove myself better today. So definitely happy to give my team the lead today."
Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece) vs. Taylor Fritz (USA)
Stefanos Tsitsipas leveled the tie for Greece by defeating World No. 9 Taylor Fritz 6-4, 7-5. This marked Tsitsipas's first victory against a Top 10 ranked player in over 18 months. During the match, Tsitsipas put 84 percent of his first serves into play in the first set. He saved a set point at 4-5 in the second set with an ace and then broke Fritz in the subsequent game to secure the win, maintaining an 80 percent first-serve win rate throughout the match. Tsitsipas's singles record at the United Cup improved to 9-2. Prior to this, his last Top 10 victories included defeating No. 5 Alexander Zverev, No. 2 Jannik Sinner, and No. 10 Casper Ruud at the 2024 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters.
Tsitsipas shared his perspective on the match: "I was fighting for the team and it was such a great match from my end. It's pretty straight forward when you are 0-1 down; I was aware of the level I needed to bring onto the court today. I felt I owed it to my team." He added, "Before I went to bed last night I was already visualising how the match was going to go. I was already playing it in my mind and I'm so happy to win exactly the way I planned. I was especially pleased with my serve and how I dealt with the pressure moments with a clear head."
Mixed Doubles Decider
Coco Gauff/Christian Harrison (USA) vs. Stefanos Tsitsipas/Maria Sakkari (Greece)
The United States secured its spot in the semi-finals after Coco Gauff and Christian Harrison defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari 4-6, 6-4, [10-8] in the mixed doubles match. Gauff and Harrison rallied from a one-set deficit to win. This was their third consecutive mixed doubles win in the tournament.
Gauff commented on the team's overall advancement, stating, "I'm really happy that we're able to move through. I felt I was playing really good today and that Christian was playing very well as well, and I knew that once we got some opportunities it would eventually swing out way."
Other Quarter-final: Switzerland vs. Argentina
The other quarter-final match in Perth featured Switzerland against Argentina. Argentina had advanced to this stage of the tournament.
- Switzerland's Team: Belinda Bencic had won both of her singles matches and secured a mixed-doubles victory when partnered with Jakub Paul. Stan Wawrinka, a three-time major champion, had played two singles matches totaling six hours during his final United Cup appearance, winning a final-set tie-break against Arthur Rinderknech and losing another against Flavio Cobolli.
- Scheduled Matches: Belinda Bencic was scheduled to play Solana Sierra, and Stan Wawrinka was scheduled to play Sebastian Baez.