Team USA is out of the 2024 Davis Cup Finals after a controversial decision and a subsequent doubles loss to Australia.
The US team didn't start the quarter-final tie against Australia well. Ben Shelton was stunned by Thanasi Kokkinakis in the first singles match despite having four match points.
Taylor Fritz was able to keep the team in play after that with a win over Alex de Minaur, which meant that a doubles match had to decide the tie between the two most successful teams in the history of this competition.
Initially, Australians nominated their doubles specialists, Matthew Ebden and Jordan Thompson, with the US team following suit, nominating Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram, who are both former doubles World No. 1 players.
However, shortly before the match, Team Captain Bob Bryan changed his nomination, choosing Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul instead of the two doubles specialists.
This was a controversial decision, considering that previously, there was a huge fallout in the American team because of doubles players. The United States has some of the best doubles players in the world on both the ATP and the WTA Tours.
Still, at the 2022 Davis Cup Finals, Team Captain Mardy Fish chose not to select Rajeev Ram, even though he was the World No. 3 in doubles back then. That decision came back to hurt them, as they lost in the quarter-finals to Italy in a doubles match.
The inclusion of the doubles specialists has been a discussed topic since then, and with the appointment of Bob Bryan, who is a 16-time Grand Slam champion in men's doubles, as a Team Captain, it seemed like this issue might be over.
Team USA took not one but two doubles specialists with them to Malaga for the 2024 Davis Cup Finals, and they were even nominated for the doubles match. Yet, shortly before the match, the team changed the nomination, opting to use Ben Shelton, who had already lost one match, and Tommy Paul instead.
The duo wasn't very successful in the match. They were broken already in the third game of the opening set and couldn't use their only break point after that to level the score, losing the set 4-6.
In the second set, Shelton and Paul again couldn't use their only break point, after which they were broken to lose the match 4-6, 4-6.
As a result, Australia advanced to the semi-finals of the 2024 Davis Cup Finals, awaiting the winner of the tie between Italy and Argentina.
US Team Captain Bob Bryan, on the other hand, had to explain his nomination after the match, saying he didn't regret it as he wanted to surprise their opponents, which didn't work.
"We had great options for doubles but I opted for the fire power of the singles players to surprise them. It was a match up decision. I decided in the 15 minutes between the singles and the doubles match. The idea was to surprise them."