Caroline Garcia and Edouard Roger-Vasselin won a critical mixed doubles match Thursday to secure France a spot in the United Cup semifinals against Poland. 

Garcia and Roger-Vasselin knocked off Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Casper Rudd 7-5, 6-4. 
 

"It's so nice. We play an individual sport and a few times in the year we have the chance to represent Team France," Garcia said. "We are very far from home and it's nice in the city already we can see there are so many French. It's so great to have that many fans here cheering us on and it's part of the United Cup I think."

There was little to separate the two teams inside a raucous Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney. Garcia and Roger-Vasselin saved all seven break points they faced.

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Earlier France and Norway had split the first two singles matches. In the opener, Caroline Garcia narrowly escaped becoming the victim of a big upset in the United Cup quarterfinals, holding off No.544-ranked Malene Helgo 6-2, 6-7(6), 7-6(5) in 2 hours and 33 minutes. 
 
More than an hour later, Ruud cruised past tricky lefty Adrian Mannarino 6-1, 6-4 to level the tie at 1-1.
 
 
For Garcia, the No.20-ranked player in the world, she extended her unbeaten United Cup singles record to 5-0 overall. She won both of the matches she contested on her debut in Perth last year and has gone 3-0 in Sydney this year. 
 

Initially, Garcia seemed to have the measure of Helgo. She won the first set straightforwardly, winning 90% of her first-serve points, breaking the Norwegian twice and wrapping it up with her third ace. Helgo, who leaked 10 unforced errors, repeatedly buckled under the pace coming from Garcia's groundstrokes.

Helgo managed to cling on in the second set, saving all three break points she faced to force a tiebreak. There, the 24-year-old began to find a new level to steal it from 5-2 down. She won the best point of the match, nailing a forehand winner after scrambling to retrieve a Garcia lob, saved a match point with a one-two punch and closed out the set with consecutive backhand winners.

In the deciding third set, Helgo threatened a similar resurgence. Garcia relocated her dominant form to speed out to a 4-1 lead, only to gift the break back thanks to a double fault down break point. Despite serving second, Helgo delivered clutch play to force another tiebreak, where she once again cut Garcia's 4-1 lead to 6-5. But on Garcia's third match point, Helgo's return clipped the tape and sat up -- and a relieved Garcia took the opportunity to put away the easy winner, her 26th of the match.
 
France and Poland will square off Saturday in Sydney, along with host nation Australia, which will take on the winner of Friday’s tie between Greece and Germany.