September 19, 2024
The USA’s 3-0 victory over Slovakia on Friday in Zhuhai, which guaranteed their spot in the 2024 Davis Cup Final 8, served as another example of the breadth and strength of their talent pool.
With five players in the Top 20 of the PIF ATP Rankings, the record-tying 32-time Davis Cup champion did not travel to China. To assure a flawless start to their nation’s Davis Cup Finals Group Stage campaign, however, Brandon Nakashima, Reilly Opelka, and Mackenzie McDonald have all recorded singles triumphs this week.
To guarantee the USA’s spot in the Final 8, McDonald defeated Lukas Klein 6-4, 6-3, while Nakashima defeated Jozef Kovalik 6-3, 6-3 on Friday. In the doubles rubber, Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram defeated Norbert Gombos and Klein 6-7(4), 7-6(4), 10-1, winning 15 of the next 16 points.
Friday’s triumph for the USA simultaneously guaranteed Germany its own Final 8 spot. The two teams will face off on Saturday to determine who will win Group C and therefore be seeded at November’s Davis Cup Finals knockout stage, to be held in Malaga from 19-24 November.
Elsewhere, Italy took a huge step in qualifying for the last eight as Matteo Berrettini comes from a set down to defeat Alexander Blockx of Belgium 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 in front of a home crowd in Bologna.
Francisco Cerundolo also secured the Argentinian team a victory at 2-0 after beating home favourite and great Britain’s Jack Draper in Manchester.
The 26-year-old Argentine defeated his English opponent Jack Draper 7-6, 7-5 to put his country Argentina in a commending lead.
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