Former US Open runner-up Madison Keys put the United States up by 2-0 over the Czech Republic after scoring a hard-fought straight sets win over Marie Bouzkova.

Keys went down an early break in both sets against Bouzkova, a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon last year, but broke back right away both times, before getting the second break in each set to win 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 21 minutes.

Keys was the player forcing the action, hitting 21 winners and 22 unforced errors in the match as compared to five winners and 15 unforced errors for Bouzkova.

In the first rubber of the best-of-five match tie, American No 1 Taylor Fritz defeated Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 6-4 to give the U.S. team a 1-0 lead.

The Czechs will now need to win all the three remaining rubbers on Friday to win the tie. The matches scheduled for tomorrow are:

• Petra Kvitova (CZE) vs. Jessica Pegula (USA)
• Tomas Machac (CZE) vs. Frances Tiafoe (USA)
• Jessica Maleckova/Dalibor Svrcina (CZE) vs. Taylor Fritz/Jessica Pegula (USA) (subject to change)

Source