By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
In a Davis Cup doubles match that featured backwards and frontwards tweeners, an around-the-post shot, a Paul Haarhuis vs. Jimmy Connors-like overhead retrieval exchange, diving forehands and backhands and a self-described “hardest forehand I’ve hit in my life,” Jack Sock and Rajeev Ram clinched victory for the United States in its Davis Cup qualifier match against Colombia with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Juan Sebastian Cabal and Nicolas Barrientos at the Reno Events Center in Nevada.
This doubles match was supposed to the be the marquee match-up of all the Davis Cup matches played this weekend around the world, pairing up four players who have all won major doubles titles and been ranked in the top 4 in the world in doubles. However, Robert Farah, the normal doubles partner for Cabal with whom he has won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open with, was a late scratch for the match with a pinched nerve in his neck, necessitating Barrientos, a Davis Cup rookie ranked a paltry No. 134 in the world, to step in.
Despite his lack of results and Davis Cup experience, Barrientos contributed greatly to the excitement of the match, hitting two diving shots and three between-the-legs shots in just a few of the dazzling exchanges during the match. It was Cabal who had the chance at hitting an around-the-post shot off a sharply angled backhand, but on the very next point Sock hit what he said was the hardest forehand he had ever hit off a service return to curtail Cabal’s glory.
“The highlight reel was on fire today,” said Sock, who also dug out several overhead smashes along with Ram in another memorable exchange.
Said Ram, “There were quite a few house of highlight shots out there from them.”
After Team USA gained a 2-0 first day advantage after singles wins from Sebi Korda and Taylor Fritz, the doubles victory was all that was needed to secure the best-of-five match series. Tommy Paul’s 7-5, 7-6 (4) win over Nicolas Mejia in a dead-rubber singles match made the final tally of the series 4-0 for the United States. The win in this “qualifier” round moves the United States in the “next round” of the 2022 Davis Cup competition branded the “Group Stage,” which is a round-robin style event with four groups of four teams playing in four separate round-robin sites to be determined from September 14-18. This round will then be narrowed down to eight quarterfinalists (the winner and runner-up of each of the four round-robin groups) that will compete in a single knock-out quarterfinal, semifinal and final-round event November 23-27.
