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By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday December 29, 2022

 
Taylor Fritz

Taylor Fritz picked up where he left off in 2022, notching a decisive victory in his first match of the new season.

Photo Source: Getty

Taylor Fritz had a breakthrough 2022 season that saw him win his first Masters 1000 title and crack the Top-10 for the first time. The top-ranked American is showing no signs of slowing down as 2023 kicks off, as he raced past Jiri Lehecka  of the Czech Republic (6-3, 6-4) to stake Team USA to a 1-0 lead at the United Cup.

Tennis Express

Later in the evening, Madison Keys powered past Marie Bouzkova (6-4, 6-3) to make it 2-0 for the Americans.

Play will resume on Friday in Sydney, with the Americans looking for the sweep. It was Fritz who set the tone for his deep and talented nation, just as he did in 2022, with strong, confident play. After the win he told reporters that he sees a blank canvas in front of him, and does not plan to let the pressure of defending points bother him this season.

“I feel pretty relaxed,” the World No.9 said. “The way I kind of just look at it is every season, I just imagine the points we set at zero. Everything is starting from nothing and we just go from there. I'm not looking at it that I have all these points to defend, I'm top 10, I need to stay here.

“Everyone starts at zero. Let's just start over, have no pressure, play how I play, we'll see where we're at at the end of the year. Hopefully that will be Top-10 or Top-5.”

11th-ranked Keys gave the United Cup rave reviews, and said that competing alongside her compatriots gave her an extra thrill on Thursday in Sydney.

“We've all known each other for a really long time,” she said of her teammates. “We've all been really close for a long time.”

After her match Frances Tiafoe asked Keys for her autograph in a moment that got quite a bit of traction on Twitter.




Clearly, this is a team that likes to work hard and play hard simultaneously. Keys says she enjoys both sides of that equation.

“I think it's great having coaching out there, but then also every time you look over, you have people that you've known forever that are there supporting you. Frances [Tiafoe] with the comments to try to keep you loose and all that (smiling). It's a really great environment. I think it's always great when we can have some sort of team event. The fact that this is the first time where it's men and women, it's great.”

There were five other ties in action on Thursday night as the competition kicked off across three cities.

Also in Sydney, Great Britain took a 2-0 lead over host Australia.

In Perth, Greek stepped out to a 2-0 lead on Bulgaria, with Stefanos Tsitsipas edging Grigor Dimitrov in a third-set tiebreak (4-6, 6-2, 7-6(4). It was the most compelling match of the first day of the season.

Very little separated the two talents, but it was Tsitsipas who played steadier in the tiebreak to win.

“Grigor gave an unforced error from the first point of the tiebreaker,” the Greek said. “I knew that this is my moment to really go for it. I tried to suppress all emotions. I tried to stay within the moment, let any negative thoughts out of my head, and I continued and cruised from that point onwards.”

Also in Perth, France got wins from Alize Cornet and Arthur Rinderknech to lead Argentina 2-0.

In Brisbane, Italy and Brazil split two matches, while Switzerland moved ahead of Kazakhstan, 2-0.

 

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