Tennis: Fritz beats Berrettini as US win inaugural United Cup
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Taylor Fritz of the United States is hugged by teammates after winning against Italian Matteo Berrettini to clinch the United Cup in Sydney.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Follow topic:
SYDNEY – The secret to winning a team event? Team bonding, of course. And the United States built on that key factor to achieve success in the United Cup on Sunday.
World No. 9 Taylor Fritz was the hero of the day as he battled past Italian Matteo Berrettini with a powerhouse performance to steer the Americans to the inaugural mixed-teams title in Sydney.
Frances Tiafoe and Jessica Pegula had earlier both won their singles matches to give their country a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five tie, with Fritz delivering victory 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (8-6).
“It’s amazing for the team to win this event, we came in with really high hopes,” said Fritz, of the US$15 million (S$20 million) competition.
“Really happy to be in the position to clinch the match. The emotions when you win are amazing.
“We had a lot of team bonding this week. When we combine the guys and girls from the US, we are so deep through the rankings it just makes the team so much stronger.”
A dominant US team crushed the Iga Swiatek-led Poland 5-0 to make the decider of the new tournament – which began with 18 nations playing round-robin matches in Perth, Brisbane and Sydney – while Italy outgunned Stefanos Tsitsipas’ Greece 4-1.
Fritz constantly put pressure on Berrettini’s serve, earning four break points on his first two service games, but all were saved.
Despite Fritz being in charge from the baseline, it went to a first-set tiebreak where he got two decisive early breaks to move 3-0 ahead before closing out the set.
The American again created a series of break points in the second set, but Berrettini hung on and it went to a tiebreak once more where he again prevailed.
Women’s world No. 3 Pegula, who burst into the top 10 in 2022 by winning the WTA 1000 Guadalajara tournament, stormed home 6-4, 6-2 against Martina Trevisan.
Tiafoe then surged through the first set 6-2 against Lorenzo Musetti before the Italian retired due to a right shoulder injury.
“Definitely very relieved, first match of the day, first match of the final,” said Pegula. “Martina is playing great, she’s a fighter, I feel like she’s thriving on the atmosphere with the fans and her team and really hard to beat someone like that. Glad I was able to play well enough to get the win.”
Tiafoe picked up where Pegula left off, breaking Musetti’s serve early, saving all three break points he faced.
The Italian increasingly touched his right shoulder as the set wore on before receiving treatment and calling it a day at end of the set.
“I thought it was a really high level... obviously at the end there I could see he was touching his shoulder a lot,” said Tiafoe.
“I didn’t want to win this way. I hope Lorenzo feels better.”
With the title decided, Madison Keys extended the US’ lead to 4-0 with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Lucia Bronzetti. AFP
