Team USA - 2
Team Czechia - 0
THE MODERATOR: We've got Team USA who have reached the final. Probably for Mike and Taylor, well done on getting to the final. Probably not the ending you were expecting. Just a few comments on that, please.
TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, obviously it was a great match. I felt like I got off to a really good start. I was playing well. I should have been able to hold out my serve and win the first set. Then on the flipside, in the second set, I felt that was a set that I was getting more outplayed, and I managed to fight, stay in it, doing what I could do and get back to it.
Obviously the match was turning there in the end. Not the way I want to win in the end, but, you know, I think we're all happy to be through to the final.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. Taylor, were you as stunned and a bit surprised as pretty much everybody else with the way that match ended? What did he say to you at the end?
TAYLOR FRITZ: He told me that he had been cramping for a couple of games already. I'm not surprised that, like, someone could have started cramping in that match. I thought that it would probably happen later in the third set, but it was very humid in there. It was a very physical match, as well.
Yeah, it happens, but I didn't expect it to kind of just, I guess, end so abruptly, because I didn't notice at the time that he was cramping.
Q. Have you ever been in a situation where a match has ended as abruptly as this one this evening?
TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, not without seeing, like, a pretty serious injury all of a sudden, no.
Q. Taylor, you just mentioned that the conditions in the stadium are quite humid. To both of you, do you feel that this was quite different from Perth? How did you feel adjusting to a new set of conditions midtournament?
TAYLOR FRITZ: I feel like it's so different (smiling). It's really, really different. For me, the ball was flying a lot more in Perth. The court in Perth is probably a little bouncier, and, like, I don't know about court speed, definitely slower over here, but I think that might just be the air, how it's going through the air, because it felt tougher to control the ball. Definitely faster in Perth.
Here, in this match particularly, especially a couple of games in, once it got dark out, I felt like I could not generate any kind of pace on the ball. It felt so slow out there, so dead.
The balls are wearing out way faster. I'd say two games in here, the balls are looking like about what they'd look like when we're about a ball change in Perth. So it's definitely a big switch.
For me, I thought yesterday when I hit, I actually hit so much better than I had hit in Perth, but then I guess just playing a match is completely different, just completely different to when you're actually just hitting and practicing. Yeah, it's a lot heavier, a lot slower, a lot more humid.
Q. Do you think it's reasonable that some teams had that conditions the whole time, and then you guys had to switch conditions halfway through? Or was that just the nature of it?
TAYLOR FRITZ: Kind of just is what it is. I think we benefited from it when, whenever it was, 2022. I think it was 2022 when our team won, we benefited from it. We were here in Sydney the whole team.
Yeah, it's definitely a massive advantage to be playing on the same court, the same conditions the whole time, and not have to fly a five-hour flight and one day and play.
Q. Looking ahead to your matches in the final against Iga and Hubi, if you could just talk through how you're feeling about those matches and what you think the keys are going to be?
COCO GAUFF: Yeah, I'm feeling great. I felt like I was playing good today. Obviously Iga is a tough opponent.
I don't know. I haven't thought about it too much yet. But yeah, I think it's going to be a great level of tennis and super excited to go out there tomorrow and hopefully bring the Cup back home.
TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, and I think Hubi is tough. It's going to be a lot of serving between him and I. I think one thing going for me is I think I served really well today. I think I have been serving well the whole tournament.
So that's something I'm definitely going to need against him, and it's something that, you know, I'm feeling really confident in my game right now.
I don't know. It's going to be a rematch of I guess when we played United Cup in '22.
Q. Congrats on making it through. Coco, curious if what you take from the match in Riyadh obviously against Iga in terms of what really worked well for you there that you think you need to focus on for tomorrow again with her?
COCO GAUFF: I think just confidence. I was very confident in Riyadh. Yeah, I think when I'm playing confident tennis, that's my best tennis. It makes it hard for her or anyone to really do anything. So tomorrow I'm just going to go out there and be confident.
Q. Captain Mike, we could potentially be looking at three epic matches tomorrow. Just your thoughts looking ahead to what the keys are going to be to get the victory.
CAPTAIN MICHAEL RUSSELL: Yeah, Poland's got a great team. What we talked about in 2022, we played them, but we have such good energy. Coco and Taylor are playing great and they fight.
Hubi serves cannons. Iga moves great, but so does Coco and she's playing well. Taylor's playing great. I think keys to the match are coming out and fighting like Coco and Taylor did so well today.
It's going to come down to maybe a few points, but we have a great bench behind us, too, so it will be fun.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports