Gauff and Harrison Guide USA Past Greece at United Cup

Coco Gauff and Christian Harrison are the official closing tandem for Team USA at the 2026 United Cup.

The pair clinched a third consecutive tie for the Americans on Tuesday in Perth, rallying from a set down to take out Maria Sakkari and Stefanos Tsitsipas 4-6, 6-4, 10-8. Team USA, the defending champion, was forced to go the distance again when Tsitsipas took out Taylor Fritz, 6-4, 7-5.

“I was fighting for the team and it was such a great match from my end,” Tsitsipas said. “It’s pretty straight forward when you are 0-1 down; I was aware of the level I needed to bring onto the court today. I felt I owed it to my team.”

Fritz fell to 1-2 on the year, with losses to Sebastian Baez and now Tsitsipas. The Southern Californian’s ten career United Cup singles are still more than any other player in the four-year history of the event.

“It was a bit of a weird one, because I felt like I was for the most part playing pretty well,” he said. “I feel like I kind of had all the shots that I needed. What I was missing balls, they didn’t feel like, I guess, bad misses.”

It was a big moment for the resurgent Greek, who earned his first Top-20 win since the summer of 2024, and it came on the heels of Gauff’s 6-3, 6-2 thrashing of Sakkari, which originally put the Americans up in the tie.

But Wednesday’s affair will be remembered for the doubles more than anything else.

Gauff and Harrison were up to the task once again, as they were against Argentina and Spain in Team USA’s previous two round robin matches, but Wednesday’s tilt was much more complicated.

They had to weather the storm of the Greek team, which was three games from victory at 6-4, 3-3 in the second set. The match was played in good spirits and with high quality, as service breaks came with regularity in both sets, eight over the course of the 90-minute contest.

Gauff stole the show with an insanely athletic game in the third game of the second set, making several improvisational volleys to give Team USA a break lead in the second set. But they would give it back in the next game.

The Americans broke again for 4-3 and made it stand up.

Harrison and Gauff then raced out to a 5-0 lead in the breaker before being reeled back to six-all. The Americans then took the next three points and eventually converted their third match piont to seal the victory.

Gauff called the win a true team effort and said she even got some advice from Taylor Fritz during the match tiebreak.

“I think it was a team effort, especially in the tiebreaker. I never thought I would get doubles advice from Taylor, but it was actually successful. I appreciate it,” she said.

“I think in those moments it’s important because literally in tiebreaks every point matters more so than maybe in a three-set format. Yeah, it definitely came down to the wire. So, yeah, I appreciate the whole team talking to us, pumping us up, and seeing things that maybe we couldn’t see on the court.”

The US will now travel to Sydney to play the Poland-Australia winner.

The Americans are bidding to win their third United Cup title in four years this week.