The United States was eliminated from the Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals on Sunday in Turin, falling, 2-1, to Colombia, though the Americans’ elimination was sealed before the conclusion of the tie in the complicated and controversial new format.
The U.S. took the court needing a convincing sweep of the Colombians to have a chance at advancing to the Quarterfinals as one of the two Group runner-up nations, after Italy won Group E on Saturday. It was, however, not exactly clear what the United States needed to do at the start of the play, confusing fans, followers and TV viewers.
“Does the USA advance if they win this tie,” texted a tennis fan to a tennis insider on Sunday during John Isner’s eventual loss to No. 111-ranked Daniel Galan of Colombia 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5). Isner fought back from 1-4 down in the final-set tiebreaker to win four points in a row to take a 5-4 lead but committed three straight unforced errors, including a tricky but makeable open-court overhead at 5-5, to lose the match. Earlier, Frances Tiafoe won his first ever Davis Cup match saving two match points to beat Colombia upstart Nico Mejia 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(7).
Germany’s outright victory over Austria officially eliminated Team USA while Isner and Galan battled on court. Jack Sock and Reilly Opelka lost the deciding match rubber (but dead rubber as far as the USA advancing into the quarterfinals) when Sock had to retire with an apparent abdominal injury trailing Robert Farah and Juan-Sebastian Cabal 3-0.
The USA lost to Italy 2-1 in its first round-robin match on Friday 2-1. Italy won the round-robin group after its win over Colombia on Saturday.
The U.S. will play a Qualifying tie March 4-5 against a nation to be determined via draw, to be conducted later this week in Madrid.
