MÁLAGA, Spain — U.S. Davis Cup captain Bob Bryan is aware of all about profitable at doubles — 16 Grand Slam titles and a current choice to the Worldwide Tennis Corridor of Fame make that apparent — but his choice to make a last-second change to his lineup in opposition to Australia on Thursday led to a loss.
With the best-of-three quarterfinal even at 1-1 heading into the deciding doubles match, Bryan opted to modify from a longtime duo, Paris Olympics silver medalists Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram, to a pairing of two singles gamers, Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton. Paul and Shelton had been overwhelmed 6-4, 6-4 by Matthew Ebden and Jordan Thompson, placing the Australians within the semifinals and sending the People residence, extending their Davis Cup title drought to 17 years.
“We had been hoping to catch the Aussies somewhat bit without warning,” Bryan stated. “We took a shot at it.”
Did not work.
“It did not shock us that a lot, to be sincere,” Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt stated. “I might seen [Paul and Shelton] do drills through the week, so, yeah, it wasn’t a shock.”
The U.S. owns a report 32 championships from the occasion, however the latest got here in 2007 — when Bryan was a member of the crew. The American males have not made the Davis Cup semifinals since 2018.
Ebden and Thompson each have claimed Grand Slam doubles titles with different companions. Paul and Shelton each have been to main semifinals in singles, however do not play quite a lot of doubles. They solely had competed as a crew at one ATP event, the 2023 Miami Open, the place they went 2-1 and exited within the quarterfinals.
Different explanations supplied by Bryan for the transfer included that Ebden is extra conversant in the video games of Krajicek and Ram — Ebde0n and John Friends beat these two within the Paris Video games last in August for the boys’s doubles gold — and that Shelton was already in “rhythm on the market” as a result of he competed earlier within the day in singles.
Shelton misplaced that one to Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (14) after staving off six match factors however failing to transform 4 of his personal.
“Heartbreaking, for certain,” Shelton referred to as it.
US Open runner-up Taylor Fritz then gained 6-3, 6-4 in opposition to Alex de Minaur to tug the People even.
It was through the quarter-hour or so after that match on an indoor exhausting courtroom on the Palacio de Deportes José María Martín Carpena in southern Spain, Bryan stated, that the doubles alternative was made.
“As a captain, you need to make robust choices. I had quite a lot of data behind the choice. We have now been right here for six days, training. We all know how everyone seems to be feeling. And we all know rather a lot concerning the opponents that we’re taking part in. It is a world of analytics,” Bryan stated. “You discuss amongst the opposite coaches. You discuss with the gamers. … This wasn’t a black-and-white choice. It was razor-thin edge, and we went with it.”
Thursday marked Shelton’s debut in Davis Cup competitors.
“To not get a win in a kind of two matches,” he stated, “hurts fairly unhealthy.”