Coco Gauff stuns Iga Swiatek to keep US alive at United Cup

Coco Gauff defeated Iga Swiatek 6-4, 6-2 to level the United Cup semifinal between the US and Poland. The tie will be decided in mixed doubles, with the winners facing Switzerland, who advanced after Belinda Bencic and Jakub Paul’s victory

Sydney: Coco Gauff beat world No 2 Iga Swiatek 6-4, 6-2 to force a mixed doubles decider in the United Cup semifinal between the United States and Poland on Saturday.

Fourth-ranked Gauff, the French Open champion, levelled the tie at 1-1 after Hubert Hurkacz defeated Taylor Fritz 7-6 (1), 7-6 (2) in the singles opener at Ken Rosewall Arena. It was Gauff’s fourth straight victory over Swiatek, the Wimbledon champion.

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Gauff and teammate Christian Harrison will face Swiatek and Hurkacz in mixed doubles, with the winners set to meet Switzerland in Sunday’s final.

Switzerland advanced when Belinda Bencic combined with Jakub Paul in the deciding mixed doubles to defeat Belgium’s Elise Mertens and Zizou Bergs 6-3, 0-6, 10-5.

Bencic has won all four of her singles matches and four in mixed doubles this week. Paul, who won just six tour-level doubles matches last year, struck several down-the-line winners at crucial moments to lead Switzerland into the final.

Earlier, Bencic extended her unbeaten season-opening singles streak by beating Mertens 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (0) to put Switzerland ahead 1-0. But Stan Wawrinka, who will retire at the end of this season, lost 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3 to Bergs, sending the tie to a mixed doubles decider.

The turning point in the Wawrinka-Bergs match came in the eighth game of the third set when Bergs broke serve to go up 5-3, then held to clinch the win.

Tournament organisers started play 30 minutes earlier than scheduled due to searing temperatures of up to 43 Celsius in Sydney.

Bencic had won all six sets in her first three matches at the United Cup. She was two games away from another straight-sets win before Mertens pushed the contest the distance.

Mertens came from 3-1 down in the third set, saved two break points that would have given Bencic a 4-1 lead, and was two points away from victory with Bencic serving at 30-30, down 6-5. But Bencic won the last nine points of the match after changing to a freshly-strung racket, sealing the win in 2 hours, 37 minutes.

“It feels like 170 kilos fell off my shoulders — I was so stressed; I really wanted to do well, and today I felt so much pressure to not let my team down,” Bencic said.
On the racket change, she added: “My brain turned off and let my instincts take over. I think it was just a feeling.”