Coco Gauff, Taylor Fritz send United States to United Cup quarterfinals

PERTH, Australia (AP) — The top-seeded pair of Coco Gauff and U.S. Open finalist Taylor Fritz of the United States are into the United Cup mixed teams tennis quarterfinals.

Fritz beat Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 Tuesday as the American team needed to win only one match to top Group A. For good measure, Gauff beat Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-2 in the later women’s singles.

The world No. 3 lost to Vekic at the Paris Olympics but Bencic was no match for Gauff on Tuesday.

“Really happy with how I played today,” Gauff said. “She’s a great player. The Olympics loss hurt so I definitely was thinking about it just as motivation to do better and I’m happy to send my team through.”

The U.S. beat Canada in its opening match.

The Perth quarterfinals were set for Wednesday, with the U.S. taking on China, which qualified as the best runner-up, and group winners Kazakhstan and Germany playing each other.

In Sydney, Italy also moved into the quarterfinals Tuesday with a 3-0 win over France at Ken Rosewall Arena. Flavio Cobolli claimed a 6-3, 6-7 (8), 6-2 upset singles win over France’s Ugo Humbert. Jasmine Paolini beat Chloe Paquet 6-0, 6-2 to give Italy its winning margin before also winning the mixed doubles.

Winners of the past two Davis Cups and runners-up two years ago to the U.S. in the inaugural edition of the season-opening mixed teams’ event, Italy won Group D without world No.1 Jannik Sinner after also beating Switzerland 2-0 in their opening tie.