SYDNEY, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Poland will battle for the United Cup title after the top two seeds of the mixed teams event won their semifinals on Saturday.

The final in Sydney on Sunday will be highlighted by a blockbuster women's singles match between world number two Iga Swiatek and former US Open champion Coco Gauff.

World No. 3 Gauff stormed past former French Open finalist Karolina Muchova 6-1, 6-4 to continue her unbeaten record in the tournament.

The American was a class above her opponent at Sydney's Ken Rosewall Arena and she dominated from the start.

Gauff raced to a 3-0 lead before closing out a one-sided opening set as she showed no signs of weariness having made the long cross-country journey from Perth after the United States' quarterfinal victory over China.

She was made to work harder in the second set against Muchova, who had impressively beaten world No. 4 Jasmine Paolini in the quarterfinals. But she stepped up on the pivotal points to claim her fourth consecutive straight sets victory over Muchova.

"It's never easy against Karolina," Gauff said. "The whole match I was intense and focused and I think that made the difference today. Happy to get my team off to a good start here in Sydney."

The United States' place in the final was secured after Czech Tomas Machac retired against world number four Taylor Fritz due to cramping. The 25th ranked Machac had won the first set 7-6 (4) and trailed 5-6 in the second set before he could no longer continue amid humid conditions.

In a see-saw of a men's singles match, Fritz was down an early break but relinquished the advantage and fell in a hole after losing the first set in a tiebreak. Machac appeared set for another impressive victory hot on the heels of pummelling Italian Flavio Cobolli in the quarterfinals.

He was up 5-2 in the second set and then served for the match in the eighth game before Fritz rallied back from the brink. In an anti-climax, Machac was forced to forfeit even though he had seemed in little discomfort with his movement.

"It was a crazy match and very physical. Not the way I wanted to win it but happy to make the final," Fritz said.

Earlier in Sydney, Poland crushed Kazakhstan 3-0 to qualify for their second straight tournament final having lost to Germany last year.

Swiatek was pushed by 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina but prevailed 7-6 (5), 6-4 to wrap up the tie for Poland.

The five-time grand slam champion had been undefeated in the tournament, but she was wary against Rybakina whose aggressive style fuelled her to four wins in their last six meetings.

Swiatek again was rattled and she stared down the barrel after falling behind 5-3 in the first set. But she dug deep and regularly hit the lanes to take control of the long rallies on the baseline.

Swiatek clinched a nerve-jangling 72-minute first set in the tiebreak and stepped up her defensive prowess to crush Rybakina's spirit and seal Poland's spot in the final.

The 23-year-old continued her impressive return after a one-month suspension for testing positive to the banned substance trimetazidine.

"I think that's the first time I was able to win with Elena on a faster surface, so it means a lot, "Swiatek said. "I for sure didn't start well. I wanted to really work and change the momentum. I'm happy because...it's always tough against Elena."

The 16th ranked Hubert Hurkacz had earlier lifted Poland to the brink of the final after easily beating Alexander Shevchenko 6-3, 6-2 in less than an hour.

After defeating Britain's Billy Harris in the quarterfinals, Hurkacz has started to find his rhythm having opened the tournament with a couple of defeats. He dominated on serve and overpowered 78th ranked Alexander Shevchenko with thundering groundstrokes.

"The last match here gave me a little bit of confidence and I've been playing better with every single match," Hurkacz said. Enditem

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