U.S. Davis Cup team sweeps Chinese Taipei to earn home tie

The United States Davis Cup team swept to a 4-0 victory against Chinese Taipei in the first round of 2025 Davis Cup qualifying, winning all eight sets played on Friday and Saturday in Taipei City. The American triumph sets up a home tie against Czechia in the second qualifying round, with the winner of that September matchup advancing to the Davis Cup Final 8 in Bologna, Italy.

Davis Cup debutants Alex Michelsen and Marcos Giron staked the U.S. a 2-0 lead with wins on Friday before Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram clinched the tie with a doubles victory on Saturday. Mackenzie McDonald then put the finishing touches on the 4-0 sweep to wrap the weekend's play.

In the three live rubbers, the Americans did not surrender a break of serve. Michelsen beat Wu Tung-Lin, 7-6(4), 6-3, after Giron dominated Tseng Chun Hsin, 6-2, 6-2, on a strong opening day. Ram and Krajicek improved to 7-2 together in Davis Cup play with a 6-4, 7-6(4) victory over Ho Ray and Wu, before McDonald preserved the shutout with a 6-2, 6-3 result against Huang Tsung-Hao in a dead fourth rubber.

"The week went very well for our team. Obviously the goal coming in here was to get three points any way we could," said captain Bob Bryan. "We knew we were up against a very tough team on the road in a far-away place, but our guys came here, they practiced well.

"They had a lot of fun together. Everyone enjoys being around each other. You have good individual tennis players and you have great camaraderie, it brings out the best in the tennis and you saw that with the way the guys played... Super happy, super proud of the guys."

That camaraderie was evident by the vocal support from the away bench—a point Michelsen drove home with a tongue-in-cheek question for Krajicek and Ram during Saturday's press conference.

"Hey guys, well done today," began the world No. 36. "Just wanted to know how you guys felt about the bench today and how the support felt that whole time. We were on our feet after every point, so just wanted to know how that felt for you guys."