The United States’ roster for the Davis Cup 2024 has been highly scrutinised. With the likes of Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul and other top players refraining from being part of the international competition, Bob Bryan constructed a unique team led by Reilly Opelka. Seems like the team captain’s experiment is paying off as Team USA etched their name in the history books by being part of an entertaining opening-tie encounter against Chile.
Opelka, Brandon Nakashima, and the doubles duo of Austin Krajicek-Rajeev Ram won their respective matches, resulting in Team USA sweeping Chile 3-0. Despite what the lopsided scoreline suggests, Alejandro Tabilo and co. did give a great fight. Each of the three encounters went to a tiebreak in the final set.
Team USA come through third set tiebreaks in all their matches against Chile to win the tie 3-0 #DavisCup | @usta pic.twitter.com/fcfOvql0Il
— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) September 11, 2024
Such an occurrence of final set tiebreaks in all matches of a single tie has been witnessed for the first time in tournament history. Upon being on the victorious side of such a bout, Bryan was proud of the character that each of his four players showed.
“It was truly an epic day of tennis for both teams,” said Bryan.
“Everyone showed a lot of heart, a lot of guts. Hats off to the Chileans. Hats off to our guys who were really digging deep, especially in the big moments.”
The former World No.1 doubles player was understandably elated after this squad, without any big names, made it to the headlines for an impressive feat.
“I don’t think it’s ever happened in Davis Cup that all matches went to the third set breaker… historic day. Just feeling very, very proud of the players,” Bryan concluded.
With the virtue of the win, the USA has a 1-0 record to begin the campaign. They have two remaining matches – against Slovakia and Germany. Even if they emerge victorious in one of the two matches, Bob Bryan and co. will advance to the next round.
As for Chile, it seems difficult for them to make it out of the group stages. After a heartbreaking loss against the USA, the South American team is already down 0-1 to Germany. To make matters worse, Tabilo is also a set and a break down in the second contest of the tie, pacing towards a 2-0 match advantage for the Germans.
