The US Davis Cup Team once again demonstrated their incredible power by beating Chile in their opening tie of the 2024 Davis Cup Finals.
While Taylor Fritz became the first American man to reach a Grand Slam final in 15 years at the US Open, this doesn't mean that American tennis lacks the depth it used to have.
Currently, the country has five players ranked inside of the Top 17 on the ATP Tour, demonstrating their incredible depth. Still, none of those players will compete at the 2024 Davis Cup Finals group stage in Zhuhai, China.
That means that Brandon Nakashima, the sixth-highest-ranked American on the ATP Tour, was the American team's highest-ranked player in this Davis Cup Finals group stage. In their first tie at the Hengqin International Tennis Center, the American team took on Chile, who have a strong line-up.
For the first match, Team Captain Bob Bryan chose to nominate Reilly Opelka, who is a former World No. 17 coming back from a long injury absence, but at the moment, he is ranked 309th, or 30th highest-ranked American on the ATP Tour.
He took on Cristian Garin, World No. 115, who also once occupied 17th position on the ATP Rankings, bringing together two players with the same career-high No. 17 place.
Opelka is a serving powerhouse, and he showed it in this match. He started the match with a break of his opponent's serve, and given how deadly his serve is, there was no doubt about who would win the opening set.
On top of that, while blasting eight aces, the American player added one more break of serve to win the first set of the match 6-3. Surprisingly, however, despite hitting nine aces in the second set, it was Opelka who was broken already in the first game of the second set.
He then had a couple of break-back points in the tenth game of the second set, but after failing to use those chances, the American player lost the second set 4-6.
The third set looked like many assumed the match would look like, with no breaks on either side. Garin had the only break point of the set, but he didn't use it, and it cost him dearly.
The match was decided in a tie-break, which Opelka controlled from start to finish to win it 7-3 and win the match 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(3), while hitting 27 aces to give the United States a 1-0 lead over Chile.
After him, it was the American No. 1 at this event, Brandon Nakashima, who took on Chile's highest-ranked player, Alejandro Tabilo. While Nakashima is the World No. 40, Tabilo is ranked 22nd on the ATP Tour, and in this match, he could be considered a minor favorite.
Still, the American player had an incredible form during the 2024 US Open, and he carried it over also to his Davis Cup debut in Zhuhai, China.
After both players saved a few break points, the first set was decided in a tie-break, and similarly to his compatriot Opelka, Nakashima was the better player in the tie-break, winning it 7-5.
But similarities with Opelka's match didn't end there. The American No. 6 player on the ATP Tour also lost his serve in the opening game of the second set, and he also lost the set, 2-6.
However, the most important similarity with the first tie match for the American team was the third set tie-break, which decided the match. Identically to Opelka, Nakashima won it 7-3 to win the match 7-6(5), 2-6, 7-6(3) and secure the win for the United States over Chile in the group stage of the 2024 Davis Cup Finals.
After this victory, Team US will play with Slovakia on September 13th, and with Germany on September 14th. Mathematically, only one win from these two ties should be enough for the country to secure their spot in the knock-out stage of the 2024 Davis Cup Finals in Malaga.
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