The United States have gained the inaugural United Cup after ice-cool go-to man Taylor Fritz gave Team USA an unassailable 3-0 lead over Italy within the best-of-five-rubber closing in Sydney.
As he did in a equally tight semi-final overcome Hubert Hurkacz, Fritz held his nerve in the important thing moments to notch a 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (10-8) victory over 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini on Sunday night time.
The world No.9’s clutch win adopted straight-sets singles wins additionally for Jessica Pegula and Frances Tiafoe.
“It’s amazing for the team to win this event,” Fritz mentioned after being crash-tackled by Tiafoe amid wild celebrations.
“We came in with really high hopes, or at least I did, for the event so I was really happy to be in that position to clinch the match.
“The emotions when you win and everyone comes running out here, it’s amazing.”
Pegula continued her sizzling summer season to provide the US an ideal begin with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Martina Trevisan earlier than Lorenzo Musetti retired injured after dropping the primary set 6-2 in opposition to Frances Tiafoe.
The back-to-back defeats left Berrettini needing to topple Fritz to maintain Italy’s hopes alive at Ken Rosewall Arena.
He couldn’t as Fritz overcame the frustration of failing to transform 9 break factors to nab each tiebreakers, as he did in opposition to Poland’s big-serving world No.10 Hurkacz on Saturday.
Despite the dominant finish scoreline of her match, world No.3 Pegula didn’t have all of it her personal manner in opposition to the Twenty seventh-ranked Trevisan.
Trevisan, who took down world No.1 Maria Sakkari in Italy’s semi-final defeat of Greece, troubled Pegula within the opening set together with her fearless energy hitting.
Pegula, although, saved her cool and gained the fifth and closing service break of the set to grab the ascendancy.
Reeling off seven straight video games, Pegula skipped out to a 5-0 lead within the second set however the left-handed Trevisan rallied as soon as extra earlier than Pegula closed out the match after 90 minutes.
“Definitely very relieved,” Pegula mentioned.
“First match of the day, first match of the final and Martina’s playing great.
“She’s a fighter, she’s competing and I feel like she’s thriving off the atmosphere here with the fans and her team and it’s really hard to beat someone like that.”
Highlighted by a surprising upset of world No.1 Iga Swiatek, Pegula has now gained 4 straight singles matches on the new blended groups’ occasion, plus 4 blended doubles encounters in a formidable Australian Open build-up.
Tiafoe has been equally sturdy, with the 2022 US Open semi-finalist preserving his unbeaten report within the occasion with a fifth singles triumph to go together with one blended doubles win.
