Taylor Fritz lost his United Cup opener to Felix Auger-Aliassime, but recovered in fine fashion to help the USA beat Canada.
Fritz wants a ‘solid week’ at the United Cup, which many players are using as preparation for the 2025 Australian Open.
But the American fell to Auger-Aliassime in their singles clash, with the latter emerging victorious 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.
Fritz did, however, partner with Coco Gauff to defeat Auger-Aliassime and Leylah Fernandez in the mixed doubles.
That came after Gauff beat Fernandez in their singles clash, thus resulting in a 2-1 group stage win for the USA.
Taylor Fritz makes ‘extremely poor’ claim after loss to Felix Auger-Aliassime
Fritz will be glad with the overall result, but the ATP Tour number four certainly had an issue with his display.
“Yeah, I have thoughts on the third,” Fritz said in his press conference. “I think the game that I got broken in the third was an extremely poor game that I played.
“Outside of that, like, he served great. I think the only situation where I’d kind of like accept it a bit more is if I let him get me in two breakers. That would be fair because he was serving great.
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“Yeah, I’m not going to overthink it too much. It’s one of those matches I’m two points away from winning the match, 30-All on my serve serving for it.
“Missed a serve by probably a millimetre that would have been an ace. At that point he hits a backhand line winner, first one he hit in the match.
“I can have a lot of thoughts about the third and the rest of the match. Super small margins from that being a straightforward win.”
Coco Gauff shines as USA beat Canada 2-1 in United Cup
Gauff has picked up from where she left off in 2024, having won the WTA Finals for the first time in Riyadh.
She needed just over one hour and 30 minutes to defeat Fernandez 6-3, 6-2, before shining in the mixed doubles.
Chris Eubanks was excited to watch Gauff and Fritz, and they certainly put on a show in their 7-6(2), 7-5 triumph.
Fritz meanwhile was grateful for his teammate, with the USA now facing Croatia in their second and final group match.
Croatia are bottom of Group A in Perth having lost 2-1 to Canada in their opener, where Auger-Aliassime and Fernandez won their mixed doubles clash.
| Position | Team | Tie W/L | Match W/L | Set W % | Game W % |
| 1 | Canada | 1-1 | 3-3 | 50.00 | 51.82 |
| 2 | USA | 1-0 | 2-1 | 71.43 | 54.79 |
| 3 | Croatia | 0-1 | 1-2 | 28.57 | 40.62 |
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