World No. 3 Coco Gauff defeated China’s Zhang Shuai 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the United Cup quarterfinals on Wednesday, giving Team USA an early lead. Taylor Fritz also showed an overwhelming serve performance, defeating Zhang Zhizhen 6-4, 6-4, giving the Americans an absolute 2-0 advantage.
United Cup: Score | Draw | Order of Play
Team USA, which won the United Cup two years ago, will join Kazakhstan on a cross-country flight to play in the semifinals in Sydney.
Gauff set the tone for the United States in Perth on New Year’s Day, opening the United Cup quarterfinals with a spirited comeback against Zhang Shuai. The 20-year-old American erased three early breaks to take a hard-fought first set and then cruised to victory.
Zhang, who entered the singles match after China’s group stage standout player Gao Xinyu was absent due to injury, put in an inspired display, but the 35-year-old veteran was ultimately unable to hold off Gauff. I couldn’t.
With flat groundstrokes and aggressive baseline positioning, Chan nailed Gauff behind the baseline with deep shots. She confidently broke Gauff in the first game of the match, but just like her disastrous first set, she was unable to secure the break. Zhang broke ties with Gauff three times in the first set, but was broken back each time, including when she took charge of the set at 6-5.
“The harder I hit, the harder she hit,” Gauff said. “I felt like I couldn’t let her play defense. She was playing very aggressively against me, so I felt like I had to be more aggressive on the second serve, which led to more double faults. I just put it in and it was a success.”I was a comeback winner so I had to take a chance. ”
Gauff reeled in Zhang and won the first set after 59 minutes with a brilliant tie-break, then set up set point with a perfect lob winner to close out the set. She carried that momentum into the second set, jumping out to a 3-0 lead and holding serve for a hard-fought victory in 1 hour and 34 minutes. With this victory, Gauff’s record in competitions improved to 3 wins and 0 losses.
“In the game against Shuai, I had to hit an ace to win the point,” Gauff said. “She was playing great tennis there. Dennis (Kudla) said I dug it and that’s what it felt like. I literally stood on the ground for most of the match. “
Fritz, who is ranked No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings, dropped just four points on his serve during his 1-hour, 19-minute victory.
“Coco did a really good job leading us and giving me a chance to come back,” Fritz said.
“There was a little bit of pressure because Coco won all her games this week and I didn’t want to lose for the sake of the team. We played a really solid game. I’m really happy.”
