Tennis USA will meet Poland in the United Cup semifinals, Greece will meet Italy

SYDNEY (Reuters) Frances Tiafoe beat Britain’s Dan Evans 3-6 7-5 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the United States United Cup mixed team tournament on Wednesday, with Poland and Greece also advancing.

The three nations that won their city finals to advance were joined in the last four by Italy, the best record in the $15 million event that replaced the short-lived ATP Cup to open the 2023 season.

The United States will face Poland and Greece and Italy for a place in the finals.

Tiafoe gave the Americans a 3-1 lead with her third straight win of the season as Jessica Pegula downed Harriet Dart 6-2 6-0 in 57 minutes. Madison Keys had earlier driven the USA into the lead after passing Katie Swan 2-6 6-3 6-4.

In-form Cameron Norrie had leveled Britain at 1-1 with a 6-4 5-7 6-4 win over world number nine Taylor Fritz, who later teamed up with Pegula to beat Dart and Evans.

It’s a big deal, Tiafoe said. We want to go deep to win this event, so that was one stepping stone towards that. Today was a big day.

The Polish players and staff started dancing after their heavyweight mixed doubles team of Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz won the final rubber against Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti and Camilla Rosatello 6-1 6-2 to wrap up a 3-2 victory.

Swiatek and Magda Linette won their singles to draw Poland twice as Musetti and Matteo Berrettini beat Hurkacz and Daniel Michalski to set up a thrilling goal under the roof at Pat Rafter Arena in rain-soaked Brisbane.

Amazing, three-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek said. It’s even better to win as a team than as an individual. I’m so glad we did it together and the teamwork paid off.

Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas shrugged off a time violation on his serve as he threw away what he thought was a broken ball to outlast Borna Coric 6-0 6-7(4) 7-5 to end a three-match losing streak against the Croatian.

But Greece were drawn to a decisive clash where the tie was locked at 2-2 and Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari beat Petra Martic and Borna Gojo 7-6(6) 6-4 to wild celebrations among fans in Perth.

The semi-finals start in Sydney on Friday and the final two days later.

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru Editing by Ed Osmond)