Former champions the United States returned to the final of the United Cup mixed team tournament with a fortuitous victory over the Czech Republic on Saturday and set up a title clash with Poland, who hammered Kazakhstan.
Tomas Machac looked set to draw the Czechs level at 1-1 in their semi-final and was serving for the contest against Taylor Fritz, but an apparent cramp took its toll and he lost three straight games before throwing in the towel at 7-6(4) 5-6.
The result gave the Americans an unassailable 2-0 lead that sent them through.
“It’s great to be back (in the final). That was a crazy match, very physical and it’s not the way that I guess I wanted to win,” said Fritz.
“He said that he had been cramping for a couple of games. I didn’t notice. He was moving pretty well, I guess he was playing through it. It’s really humid in here … tough conditions.”
Coco Gauff got the ball rolling for the 2023 champions with a 6-1 6-4 victory over the tricky Karolina Muchova in a rematch of the Beijing final in October that the American won.
“It’s never easy against Karolina,” said world number three Gauff, who recovered from a break deep in the second set to get past Muchova in Sydney.
“The whole match I was intense and focused and I think that made the difference today.”
Last year’s runners-up Poland reached their second straight final at the $10 million tournament after Hubert Hurkacz and Iga Swiatek won their singles matches in style.
World number two Swiatek settled the tie with a battling effort against the big-hitting Elena Rybakina, securing a 7-6(5) 6-4 victory for a 2-0 lead at the Ken Rosewall Arena.
“I think this was the first time I was able to win against Elena on a faster surface,” said an exhausted Swiatek after the epic battle that lasted a little over two hours.