Polish tennis players were the first to report after their 3-0 victory over Kazakhstan final United Cup. The Czechs and Americans fought for the next place. In the first confrontation, the latter left no doubts. The leader of their team – Coco Gauff quickly defeated Karolina Muchova 6:1, 6:4. Tomas Machac had to try to keep the Czechs in the game.
The Czechs were already one ball away from equalizing the score. What a horror in the United Cup semi-final
The 25th player in the ATP ranking had to defeat Taylor Fritz, fourth in this ranking. The task had a demanding beginning match he just confirmed it. Fritz won the first three games without any major problems. In the next one he had one break point, but in the end the Czech defended himself and started to make up for the losses. Unexpectedly, the score was 3-3, and then the men were playing point for point. In addition, Fritz reported some health problems. During the break, he took off his shoe and pointedly grabbed his foot. Ultimately, the fate of the first game had to be decided by a tie-break.
In it, both tennis players consistently maintained the advantage of their own serve. It became clear that one mistake could be crucial. And so it happened. Only when the score was 4:4, Fritz lost the action on his own serve. Machac took full advantage of this. He scored three points in a row and sensationally ended the game with a 7-6 (7-4) victory.
The USA will play in the final against Poland. Machac sensationally surrendered the match
Machac won the set despite the fact that he scored slightly fewer points overall (41 to 44). He wasn't even bothered by the fact that Fritz served 10 aces to only five from the Czech. He started the second part with a victory and could have followed suit immediately. When the opponent passed, he was leading 40:15, but then Fritz was flawless and equalized the score at 1:1. From the score 2-2, it seemed that Machac had started a confident march to victory. Soon he was leading 5:2 and then something broke.
At one point, Machac had two match balls in the air, but he didn't use any of them. Fritz defended himself and gained the wind in his sails. He broke it immediately and after a while he drew 5:5. During breaks, the Czech pointedly grabbed his knee. He finally lost the eleventh game, then went down to the bench and threw his racket at the court. Then he argued loudly with the Czech captain. Finally, when the score was 7:6, 5:6, he gave up, said goodbye to his opponent and left the court.
In this situation, the Americans are already leading against the Czechs 2-0, which means that regardless of the mixed result, they will be in the United Cup final and will play against the Poles on Sunday.