PERTH, Australia (AFP) — World No. 4 Coco Gauff suffered her first-ever defeat at the United Cup on Monday when she was stunned by Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-1, 6-7 (3/7), 6-0 in a blow to her Australian Open preparations.

But after Taylor Fritz won to level the tie for the United States, Gauff made amends with Christian Harrison in the mixed doubles, beating Ivonne Cavalle-Reimers and Inigo Cervantes 7-6 (7/5), 6-0 to seal a quarterfinal spot.  

Gauff had won all six of her previous United Cup singles matches for the US and had a 3-0 record in mixed doubles. It was the first win over a top-five player for Bouzas Maneiro. 

“I know Coco and she’s a fighter,” the 42nd-ranked Bouzas Maneiro said in Perth. 

“She’s there all the time in the match, so I knew that I had to be there. Even if you are 3-0 or 4-0 up, you have to be ready.” 

World No. 4 Fritz, who is battling a knee problem, needed more than three hours to beat Jaume Munar 7-6 (7/4), 3-6, 7-6 (8/6). 

“I was getting exhausted late in the second set, I had to unload five or six shots just to win a single point,” said Fritz, who saved a match point in the third set tiebreak. 

“I started feeling my knee towards the end but it didn’t get any worse. It was not bad enough to stop me from playing through.” 

In Sydney, Germany’s world number three Alexander Zverev was also on the end of a shock United Cup result, beaten 6-3, 6-4 by Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz, who had not played since June because of knee surgery. 

“It’s been a while since I’ve been competing. Seven months I’ve been going through difficult times with the team and it was very challenging,” Hurkacz said.

“We went through a long period of time not competing and not knowing when we would be able to be back on court again.” 

“I was just trying to cherish and enjoy every moment here on the court today.” 

Former world No. 6 Hurkacz has tumbled to 83rd in the rankings but faced just one break point in his 83-minute victory. 

“I was serving quite well. I was finding nice spots, so that’s definitely a nice feeling to really have good rhythm on the serve,” Hurkacz said. 

“Just so pleased with the performance and just also so much fun to see the fans again.” 

Iga Swiatek closed out the tie for Poland defeating Eva Lys in a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 fightback. 

Earlier, the Czech Republic knocked out Norway with a 3-0 win in Sydney.

Greece swept to an unassailable 2-0 lead over Britain as Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Billy Harris 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7/4) and Maria Sakkari beat Emma Raducanu for the first time, stopped the 2021 US Open champion 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. 

“I got fed up with losing tight matches like this,” two-time Grand Slam finalist Tsitsipas said of his victory. “I used all of my power to make sure it did not happen again.” 

“I’ve not played such a high-quality match in a long time.” 

The Australian Open starts on 18 January.