US Davis Cup Team Eliminated Already In Group Stage After Paul Losses To Ruusuvuori

Saturday, 16 September 2023 at 20:27

Updated at Saturday, 16 September 2023 at 20:31

byEvita Mueller

Despite bringing a very good team to Split, Croatia, the US team is out of the 2023 Davis Cup after both Tommy Paul and Mackenzie McDonald failed to win their singles matches.

This wasn't supposed to happen for the United States, and it's a pretty shocking result, even if they were in a very tricky group. They barely won on the first day against Croatia, got stunned by the Netherlands in the second tie, and now lost to Finland in their third tie.

Frances Tiafoe destroyed his racquet and lost his match on code violation, which is why McDonald got the nod on the final day. He faced Otto Virtanen earlier on Saturday but lost in a tight three-setter, making the Paul match a must-win for the country.

If he failed to beat Emil Ruusuvuori, they were out, and that's exactly what happened. Ruusuvuori is generally not the type of player you wanna play in these circumstances, as he has a very heavy game with a powerful serve and strong forehand.

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If you catch him on his day, you're in trouble, especially indoors, but oddly enough, this wasn't really his day. He didn't play all that special, and Paul had plenty of chances but simply didn't use them. The first set ended in a tiebreak, which Ruusuvuori won 7-1.

He had only 6 winners and 19 unforced errors in this one so as you can see he didn't play that well and Paul was up 5-2 earlier in the set, but couldn't finish it off. The second set was pretty close, but Ruusuvuori played a fair bit better.

He jumped out to a 5-3 lead, hoping to close out the match, but Paul saved a few match points to create a break chance. He converted it but then allowed more match points for Ruusuvuori, and this time around, there was no mistake from the Finnish player. The final score was 7-6(1) 6-4 for Rusuuvuori, who eliminated the United States from the 2023 Davis Cup Finals.