The USTA announced that Tommy Paul, Jenson Brooksby, Mackenzie McDonald, Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek will represent the U.S. for its Davis Cup by Rakuten Qualifying tie vs. Uzbekistan February 3-4 at the Olympic Tennis School in Tashkent.
An interim captain for the tie will be named in the near future, as the USTA and Mardy Fish mutually agreed to move in a new direction with the Davis Cup captaincy in 2023. Further information on the search for a new full-time captain will also be announced at a later date.
Davis Cup is the World Cup of Men’s Tennis and is the largest international team competition in world sport, with nearly 150 nations competing each year. The Qualifier vs. Uzbekistan is a best-of-five match series played over two days, beginning with two singles matches on Friday, February 3.A doubles match and two reverse singles matches will follow on Saturday, February 4. The first to win three of those matches will advance to the 2023 Davis Cup Finals – a 16-nation, multi-city competition held later this year, culminating with the Final 8 stage in November in Malaga, Spain.
The U.S. is 2-0 all-time vs. Uzbekistan – a 3-1 victory in Tashkent in the 2015 World Group Playoffs and a 4-0 win in the 2020 Qualifiers in Honolulu, Hawaii.
Paul, 25, is ranked No. 32 in singles and is a career-high No. 28. He’s played in six ties for the U.S. Davis Cup team and made his debut against Uzbekistan in the 2020 Qualifiers in Honolulu, defeating Denis Istomin, 6-3, 6-0, in a dead singles match.
Brooksby, 22, is ranked No. 48 in singles and is a career-high No. 33. This is the debut Davis Cup nomination for the Sacramento native, who reached the fourth round of the 2021 US Open as a 20-year-old – the youngest American to do so since Andy Roddick in 2002 – and reached three ATP Tour singles finals over the last two seasons.
McDonald, 27, is ranked No. 63 and is a career-high No. 48. This is also the first Davis Cup nomination for the 2016 NCAA singles and doubles champion out of UCLA, who was named the ATP Tour’s Comeback Player of the Year in 2021.
Ram, 38, is ranked No. 3 in doubles and is a career-high world doubles No. 1. He’s competed in five Davis Cup ties over the past two years and increased his career doubles title count to 26 in 2022, including titles won at the US Open and the Nitto ATP Finals.
Krajicek, 32, is ranked No. 10 in doubles and is a career-high doubles No. 9. A 2020 Tokyo Olympian, this is the debut Davis Cup nomination for Krajicek, a former NCAA doubles champion at Texas A&M who has won seven career ATP doubles titles, including three in 2022.
For more information, including access to player and historical records, visit www.usta.com/daviscup or www.daviscup.com.
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The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level — from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. A not-for-profit organization, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, one of the highest-attended annual sporting events in the world, and launched the US Open Series, linking seven summer WTA and ATP World Tour tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns approximately 120 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S. and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games. The USTA’s philanthropic entity, the USTA Foundation, provides grants and scholarships in addition to supporting tennis and education programs nationwide to benefit under-resourced youth through the National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network. For more information about the USTA, go to USTA.com or follow the official accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
