The United States swept Croatia in Perth and Italy did the same to France in Sydney on Tuesday to reach the quarterfinals of the United Cup in Australia.
Taylor Fritz defeated Croatia’s Borna Coric 6-3, 6-2 and Coco Gauff scored a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Donna Vekic in singles. Fritz and Gauff completed the 3-0 win in Group A with a 6-2, 6-3 defeat of Petra Marcinko and Ivan Dodig in mixed doubles, setting up a meeting with China.
In Group D, Italy’s Flavio Cobolli saved a match point in a 3-6, 7-6 (8), 6-2 win against France’s Ugo Humbert and Jasmine Paolini sailed to a 6-0, 6-2 defeat of Chloe Paquet in singles. Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori posted a 6-3, 7-6 (3) win in mixed doubles over Elixane Lechemia and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
Brisbane International
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia collected his first ATP Tour singles win since October with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of home hopeful Rinky Hijikata in Australia.
Djokovic, 37, fired 12 aces and never faced a break point in the 75-minute win to set up a second-round meeting with Gael Monfils. Djokovic is 19-0 lifetime against the Frenchman.
No. 4 seed Frances Tiafoe ousted Australia’s Adam Walton 7-6 (5), 6-3 and Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi posted a 6-3, 6-2 upset of seventh-seeded Aussie Alexei Popyrin. Other winners included Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic, Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic, Reilly Opelka and France’s Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard.
Hong Kong Open
Fifth-seeded Nuno Borges of Portugal rallied for a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6) win over China’s Yunchaokete Bu in a first-round match that lasted 2 hours and 14 minutes.
No. 7 Pedro Martinez of Spain, the only other seeded player in action, took down Italian qualifier Francesco Passaro 6-4, 6-4.
Others advancing to the second round in Hong Kong included Belgian wild card Zizou Bergs, Canada’s Gabriel Diallo, France’s Alexandre Muller, Spain’s Jaume Munar, Japan’s Kei Nishikori and China’s Juncheng Shang.
–Field Level Media
