Poland defeats the United States in mixed doubles to advance to Fed Cup final against Switzerland
SYDNEY – Poland reached the Fed Cup final as Katarzyna Kawa and Jan Zielinski beat Coco Gauff and Christian Harrison 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3) in the mixed doubles decider.
Poland will face Switzerland in Sunday’s final.
Kava and Zielinski once again played a decisive role in the mixed doubles decider against Australia in the quarter-finals. Six-time Grand Slam singles champion Iga Switk also arrived to join in the celebrations.
Previously, Gauff defeated second-ranked Swiatek 6-4, 6-2, forcing the mixed doubles into a decider.
Hubert Hekatz defeated Taylor Fritz 7-6 (1), 7-6 (2) in the singles opener at Ken Rosewall Arena, and fourth-ranked French Open champion Gauff tied the score at 1-1 in the team event. This was Gauff’s fourth consecutive victory over Wimbledon champion Swiatek.
The Swiss team teamed up with Jakub Paul and Belinda Bencic in the mixed doubles decider and defeated the Belgian combination of Elise Mertens and Zizou Berges 6-3, 0-6, 10-5 to advance.
Bencic won all four singles matches and all four mixed doubles matches in the team competition this week. Paul won just six tour-level doubles matches last year, but he hit some killer shots at crucial moments to lead Switzerland to the final.
“He’s so brave, it’s unbelievable,” Bencic said of Paul. “I told him to go (for it) and he did. It’s crazy.”
Previously, Bencic defeated Mertens 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (0), helping the Swiss team lead 1-0, continuing her unbeaten record in singles at the beginning of the season. But Stan Wawrinka, who is about to retire at the end of this season, was defeated by Burges 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-3, sending the game to the Ken Rosewall Arena for the mixed doubles decider.
The turning point in the match between Wawrinka and Burgess came in the eighth game of the third set. Burgess broke Wawrinka’s serve to lead 5-3, and then held serve to win the game.
Race organizers are starting the race 30 minutes earlier than originally planned, with temperatures expected to hit 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit) in Sydney.
Bencic won all six sets in his first three Fed Cup matches. She was two games away from another two-set victory before Mertens brought it closer.
In the third set, Mertens fought back from 1-3 down, saved two break points from Bencic’s 4-1 lead, and was two points away from winning when Bencic trailed 30-30 on serve and 6-5 behind.
But Bencic won the final nine points of the match after deciding to swap out his racquet for a newly strung one.
“It felt like 170 kilos fell off my shoulders – I was under a lot of pressure; I really wanted to do well and today I felt a lot of pressure not to let my team down,” Bencic said.
Of the racket change, she said: “My brain shut down and let my gut take over. I think it was just a feeling.”
