VILNIUS/STARNBERG, February 2, 2024
The doubles team of No. 3 Austin Krajicek and No. 5 Rajeev Ram clinched the U.S. Davis Cup team’s spot in the Group Stage of the 2024 Davis Cup Finals on Friday in Vilnius, Lithuania, defeating a spirited Ukrainian team of No. 301 Vitaliy Sachko and No. 947 Illya Beloborodko, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. Krajicek and Ram are now 4-1 together in Davis Cup doubles, and Ram improves 8-2 himself.
USA seal the deal ✅
They qualify for the #DavisCup Group Stage Finals 🇺🇸#DavisCup | @usta pic.twitter.com/tapwnvwAHN
— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) February 2, 2024
“The feeling is amazing. Any time you get to compete for your county it’s really special for me, for us,” said Krajicek. “I think it’s really cool. … Tough match today. I thought those guys played unbelievable, which was fun. It was really fun to compete against them. I think their whole team was super talented and they brought it. We had some tough matches. It was a great match to get through in three.”
Ram added: “It’s always different when you play for your country. I feel like rankings kind of go out the window. We’ve done this enough together to know that no matter what a player is ranked, they’re going to play maybe above their level sometimes. I think that’s the first thing. The second thing is we have to make sure that we are completely and 100 percent ready to go and ready to battle out there as long as it takes.”
World No. 9 Taylor Fritz, having been subbed for Chris Eubanks on Thursday due to an injured right hip, recovered in time to finish off the tie, defeating Vladyslav Orlov, 6-3, 6-4, in a dead match to make the tie an even 4-0.
“I feel great. I’m proud of the guys. It’s been an awesome week. I love spending time with them, a great bunch of kids. They played great this week,” said U.S. Davis Cup captain Bob Bryan. “The Ukrainians put up some tough resistance at times. They fight hard until the last ball, as you saw. But our guys were solid and they really brought it. I thought we played great tennis this week.”
The Group Stage will be played across four TBD cities September 10-15. The top eight nations advancing out of Group Play will play in the Final 8 stage of the competition, a knockout-style quarterfinal bracket to be played in November in Malaga, Spain, that will crown the 2024 Davis Cup champion.
