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U.S. Davis Cup team beats Germany to complete undefeated group stage campaign

Arthur Kapetanakis | September 14, 2024

The United States Davis Cup team completed a perfect group stage campaign Saturday with a 2-1 win against Germany in Zhuhai, China. Singles wins for Brandon Nakashima and Reilly Opelka clinched the tie for the Americans, securing a first-place finish in Group C and a seed in November's Davis Cup Final 8 knockout stage.

 

Nakashima won three singles matches on the week, following victories in U.S. sweeps against Chile and Slovakia with a 6-4, 6-2 triumph against Germany's Maximilian Marterer. Opelka, who also won against Chile on Wednesday, saved three match points in a 6-7(4), 7-6(9), 6-3 result against Henri Squire that improved him to 2-0 in group play. Captain Bob Bryan's U.S. team suffered its lone match loss of the group stage in a dead doubles rubber, when Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram were beaten, 6-1, 7-6(4), by Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz.

 

"It’s going to be exciting," Nakashima said of the Davis Cup Final 8, which will be held in Malaga, Spain, from Nov. 19-24. "I think all of the Americans are super exciting, whoever’s going to be there. We have a great group of guys that anyone can compete at the highest level.

 

"It’s definitely an exciting time for American tennis, and whoever’s going to be able to play there it’s going to be an exciting week."

The U.S. will be joined by Australia, Spain, Germany, Canada, Italy and two other nations still to be determined in the Final 8. This year will see both the U.S. Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup teams competing in their respective Finals alongside one another, with both Finals scheduled to be played in Malaga at the same venue in consecutive weeks. The Billie Jean King Cup Finals, for which the U.S. has also qualified, will be played Nov. 13-20.

 

The U.S. team in Zhuhai also included Mackenzie McDonald, who picked up the opening singles win against Slovakia on Friday. Bryan's American team this week did not include any of the five U.S. men who are currently ranked in the singles Top 20: No. 7 Taylor Fritz, No. 13 Tommy Paul, No. 15 Sebastian Korda, No. 16 Frances Tiafoe and No. 17 Ben Shelton.

Opelka's win against Germany included two match points saves on serve and one on return, all in the second-set tiebreak. He saved the only two break points he faced in the match and won more than 80% of his points on both first and second serve.

 

After he clinched the win against Germany—and a seed for the Americans in the Final 8—Opelka looked ahead to the knockout stage of the Davis Cup competition.

 

"It gives us a hopefully a better position in the next group, to maybe avoid playing Italy first round," he said, referring to the defending champions led by world No. 1 and freshly minted US Open champ Jannik Sinner. "It’s kind of pick your poison. Australia’s a super-deep, tough team. Spain’s obviously a ridiculous team. Italy’s insane. So anything to try to give the A team—Tommy, Fritz and Foe, Shelton and Korda—the best shot that they can have."

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