Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz powered the U.S., tournament winner two years ago, into the semifinals of the United Cup mixed teams tennis event on Wednesday.
In the first singles match in Perth, Gauff got the ball rolling for her team with a gritty 7-6 (4), 6-2 win over Zhang Shuai. Fritz then made sure of victory by edging a tight contest with Zhang Zhizhen 6-4 6-4.
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World No.3-ranked Gauff said: “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.
“I felt like I couldn’t get her on defence. She was playing so aggressively 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.”
Kazakhstan also advanced to the semifinals with a 2-1 win over a German team playing without the injured world No. 2-ranked Alexander Zverev.
