The Americans dominated the inaugural edition of the United Cup. How did the Czechs do?

The first edition of the United Cup mixed team competition, held in Australia, was won by the United States team. The final match was decided after just three singles matches. How did the Czech team led by Jiri Vanek do at the tournament?

The Americans came to the overall victory in an absolutely dominant way. Out of 25 matches they lost only 2. One of the scalps was won by Petra Kvitova, who defeated the American number one, Jessica Pegula.

Otherwise, it’s been a great American run. On their way to the championship they defeated the Czech team, Germany, Great Britain, Poland and in the final clash Italy.

It wasn’t enough to have the likes of Matteo Berettini and Lorenzo Musetti on the Italian side. Taylor Fritz, Jessica Pegula, Frances Tiafoe and Madison Keys scored for the American side.

In the first opening bout, the women’s number one contenders, Jessica Pegula and Martina Trevisan, clashed. Pegula, who had only lost a match to Petra Kvitova up to that point, gave her Italian opponent no chance. She improved her United Cup record to 8-1.

In the following match, Lorenzo Musetti retired after losing the first set and the most attractive match of the evening between Taylor Fritz (9th) and Matteo Berettini (14th) followed.

Both sets had to be decided by shortened games in which the American player was more successful, continuing his great form of the last few months. In the final match, Keys improved the score by winning 2: 0 on sets and the United States could start celebrating.

How did the Czech team do?

For the first time, the Czech team, coached by Jiri Vanek, appeared at a similar tournament. In the group, we had the victorious Americans and Germans. Only one of them advanced so there was no place for us in the play-offs.

But we can evaluate the performance of the Czech players very positively. Perhaps it would have shuffled the cards very much if Tomas Machac had not crossed Frances Tiafoe when leading in the second set. Also the match between Maria Bouzkova and Madison Keys was decided by small details.

Petra Kvitova scored a big win when she went up against the world number three, Jessica Pegula. She beat her in two sets 7::6(6) and 6::4.

The victory over Germany was just a confirmation of the Czech players’ sympathetic performance. Both Marie Bouzkova and Petra Kvitova won their matches with ease. But the icing on the cake was the victory of Jiri Lehecka over the world number 13, Alex Zverev.

The Czech team won at least the second match against Germany 3:2 and was placed in the second non-advancing position.

Sources: United Cup, ATP, WTA