United Cup 2025: Team USA into final in bizarre circumstances as Tomas Machac goes from winning position to retirement

Tomas Machac looked to be on his way and cruising towards the deciding doubles at the 2025 United Cup for the Czech Republic but he ended up retiring just after he had the chance to win.

Machac who has led alongside Karolina Muchova this week in the Czech assault at the title won the opening set in a tie-break and went on to hold onto a 4-2 lead and had match points at 5-2.

But he went from having match points and seeming to be on his way to victory to cramping up in the word of Fritz and throwing away the tie due to retirement. He had two match points that he spurned and then Fritz had break points in the following game which he sealed to make it 5-5. It was sat at 6-5 up and seemingly Machac knew it was heading towards another set so he gave up and now USA are through and Czech Republic are out.

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Prior to all the chaos that ensued Coco Gauff engineered a dominant win over Karolina Muchova. She raced through a 6-1, 6-4 win over the World No.22 who has been in superb form as of late to improve her record to 4-0.

This gave Team USA the early impetus as they looked to find their way past a tough test in the Czech Republic and they will be very much pleased that they didn't need deciding doubles.

Gauff had never lost a set to Muchova winning all six in their recent past. Showing no signs of fatigue after coming from Perth, Gauff was straight into her business as she came out confident easing into a 3-0 lead and closing out the opening set saving two break points in the final game.

Gauff led 4-2 in the second set before Muchova broke the American's serve to ask the question but she was errant from there as Gauff served out a 90 minute win.

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