SYDNEY, Australia — When her country needed it most, Coco Gauff delivered.

After Taylor Fritz fell to Hubert Hurkacz in the opening match of the United Cup semifinal tie between Poland and the United States, Gauff displayed her dominance at its finest in a 6-4, 6-2 win over World No. 2 Iga Swiatek. The semifinal tie — a rematch of last year’s final — now heads to a mixed doubles decider to determine who will face Switzerland in Sunday’s final.

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Gauff and Christian Harrison will face Swiatek and Hurkacz in the mixed doubles decider.

“I didn’t the let the opportunities that I had on the first two times I had match points get away from me,” said the World No. 4, who won on the fourth match point. “She played well. Maybe there was one error on the backhand, but after that, she played the better tennis, but I knew that how I was playing the whole match I would get it done.”

Gauff, who played her 16th matchup against Swiatek on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, earned her fourth straight victory over her rival. That includes a 6-4, 6-4 win in last year’s United Cup, as well as wins at Madrid and the 2024 WTA Finals.

The two rivals traded a few holds initially as Gauff, who served first, took a 2-1 lead before notching the match’s first strike. She broke Swiatek and backed it up with a hold, amassing to a 4-1 advantage, but the Pole swiftly found herself back in the set.

Swiatek won 12 consecutive points to win three straight games a level the set at 4-4. She had the momentum, but Gauff remained calm and composed for the remainder of the 43-minute first set. She held serve, and on the ensuing Swiatek service game, the American No. 1 needed just one set point to close it out.

That momentum carried its way into the second, where Gauff bolted out to a 5-0 lead — Swiatek saved three match points to prevent the second set bagel to get two games back.

In the second and fourth games, Gauff needed three and four break point chances, respectively, to secure the game as each went into a long deuce. In the fourth, Swiatek even had multiple game points of her own, but the final two points saw Swiatek’s shots go long and wide, a common occurrence Saturday evening.

It wasn’t the same Swiatek that defeated Maya Joint 6-1, 6-1 a day prior, but a composed Gauff maintained complete control of the match throughout to keep her country alive in the semifinal tie following Hurkacz’s win.

The Pole continued his dream start to his comeback with a 7-6 (1), 7-6 (2) win against  Fritz. 

“Obviously playing Taylor is such a big challenge and it’s a very difficult match, especially this court, it’s quite fast. He’s serving very powerfully. Also, his forehand is really big, so if you leave anything short, he’s going to come after it,” Hurkacz told ATP No. 1 Club Jim Courier. “I felt like I played actually quite solid myself. I tried to be more aggressive.”

In his first action since June of last year, the former No. 6 player in the PIF ATP Rankings has played dominant, big-serving tennis to help his country to the brink of the championship match against Switzerland.

Hurkacz has now beaten Alexander Zverev, Tallon Griekspoor and Fritz in Sydney, claiming all three of those victories in straight sets. Hurkacz saved the two break points he faced against Fritz, which doubled as set points at 4-5 in the opening set, to earn the lead for his country in one hour and 35 minutes.

“Coming back from such a long period the first time in my life, you never know what to expect,” Hurkacz said. “I was putting so much work outside of the court so, I give myself time to get back to my level, to an even better level and maybe a little bit less expectations coming into this week helped as well.”

Fritz led Hurkacz 4-2 in their head-to-head series, including two previous wins at the United Cup. But the Pole and his booming serve proved too much for the American.

More to come