Gauff Leads USA to Second United Cup Title; Twenty-one Americans in Australian Open Qualifying Field; Former Collegians Rack Up Pro Doubles Titles

photo from United Cup via X

Taylor Fritz was a part of the USA team that claimed the United Cup championship in 2023, the first year the competition was held, but 2025 marked the debut of Coco Gauff as a participant, and the 20-year-old could not have performed any better. She defeated Leylah Fernandez, Donna Vekic, Zhang Shuai, Karolina Muchova and Iga Swiatek in women's singles, the latter by a 6-4, 6-4 score that gave the United States a 1-0 lead over Poland. Fritz, who has played on the US team all three years, clinched the title with a tense 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(4) win over Hubert Hurkacz, and the mixed doubles match was not played.

The USA team lost only one match in their five victories, with Fritz losing to Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada in the first match in group play, but Gauff won her singles and Fritz and Gauff took the mixed doubles, and weren't required to win another mixed point. Michael Russell coached the US team, which also included Denis Kudla, Robert Galloway, Desirae Krawczyk and Danielle Collins.

For more on today's final in Sydney, see this article from the United Cup website.

Australian Open qualifying begins in less than an hour, with nine of the 21 Americans in the draws on the schedule for Monday(tonight in the United States). Below are the matchups for the 12 US men and nine US women; only one first round match features Americans going head to head. There is an all Texas A&M alum match however, with Patrick Kypson facing Hady Habib, with the two teammates in College Station in 2018.

Men:

Ethan Quinn v Calvin Hemery(FRA)

Eliot Spizzirri v Alexander Blockx(BEL)

*Christopher Eubanks[4] v Hugo Grenier(FRA)

Emilio Nava v Tomas Barrios Vera(CHI)

Tristan Boyer[26] v Rei Sakamoto[WC](JPN)

*Aleks Kovacevic[7] v Andrea Collarini(ARG)

*Brandon Holt v Gianluca Mager(ITA)

*Mackenzie McDonald[25] v Alex Bolt(AUS)

*Mitchell Krueger v Filip Jianu(ROU)

*Patrick Kypson v Hady Habib(LBN)

Zachary Svajda v Enzo Couacaud(FRA)

Learner Tien[16] v Gregoire Barrere(FRA)

*Monday first round

Alycia Parks[1] v Mirjam Bjorklund(SWE)

Sachia Vickery v Ana Konjuh(CRO)

Louisa Chirico v Kristina Mladenovic(FRA)

Usue Arconada v Priscilla Hon(AUS)

Robin Montgomery[11] v Polona Hercog(SLO)

*Hanna Chang v Varvara Lepchenko[21]

Claire Liu v Ella Seidel[31](GER)

*Emina Bektas v Arianne Hartono(NED)

*Monday first round

Monday's order of play is here; the qualifying draws are here.

The number of WTA and ATP titles won by collegians seems to expand every week, and this past week, five titles at the 125 and above level went to teams that featured at least one former collegian.

Former NC State star Diana Shnaider continued her successful partnership with Mira Andreeva at the WTA 500 in Brisbane, with the Paris silver medalists defeating Priscilla Hon of Australia and Anna Kalinskaya 7-6(6), 7-5 in the final. 

At the ATP 250 in Brisbane, Great Britain's Julian Cash(Mississippi St, Oklahoma St) and Lloyd Glasspool(Texas) won their second ATP title as a team, with the No. 5 seeds beating Jiri Lehecka and Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-7(2), 10-5 in the final.

Great Britain's Luke Johnson(Clemson), and partner Sander Arends of the Netherlands won the ATP 250 in Hong Kong, their second ATP title together. The unseeded pair defeated unseeded Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev 7-5, 4-6, 10-7 in the final.

For more on those two finals, see this article from the ATP website.

At the WTA 125 in Canberra, former Florida State standout Petra Hule won her biggest title, after the 25-year-old Australian had collected five titles on the ITF women's World Tennis Tour last year. Two of those were with compatriot Jaimee Fourlis, her partner in Canberra, with the No. 4 seeds defeating No. 3 seeds Darja Semenistaja of Latvia and Nina Stojanovic of Serbia 7-5, 4-6, 10-6 in the final.

At the ATP Challenger 125 in Canberra, Eliot Spizzirri(Texas) and Ryan Seggerman(Princeton, UNC) won their first title as a team, with the unseeded pair beating unseeded Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France and Jerome Kym of Switzerland 1-6, 7-5, 10-5. It's the second Challenger doubles title for Spizzirri; Seggerman has ten, partnering with Patrik Trhac(Idaho State, Utah) for the first nine.

At the ATP Challenger 100 in Noumea, Colin Sinclair(Cornell) of Northern Mariana Islands won the doubles title with Blake Bayldon of Australia, and at the ITF W75 in Thailand, Maria Mateas(Duke) and Alana Smith(NC State) won their first title as a team.