Even though this first year of the new Davis Cup by Rakuten Madrid Finals won’t ultimately feature the United States as a champion, the Americans’ final tie of 2019 had everything to remind observers near and far of the spectacle of Davis Cup competition.

A near-record late finish – 4:04 a.m. in Madrid is when Sam Querrey and Jack Sock finally defeated Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-4 – punctuated a tie between the U.S. and Italy that spanned nearly eight hours in total over Wednesday night and Thursday morning and ended in a 2-1 U.S. victory.

Incredible!!!

Jack Sock and Sam Querrey defeat Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini in what is the second latest finish in tennis history ⏰

The USA win the tie 🇺🇸#DavisCupMadridFinals #byRakuten pic.twitter.com/lcG72mwfgl

— Davis Cup by Rakuten Madrid Finals (@DavisCupFinals) November 21, 2019

Somewhere along the way, though, the U.S. was eliminated from Quarterfinal contention, leaving the doubles match to matter in the record books, where it’ll go down as the second-latest finishing tennis match of all-time, after a 4:34 a.m. finish between Lleyton Hewitt and Marcos Baghdatis at the 2008 Australian Open, and in the hearts and memories of the U.S. bench.

In reality, the Americans’ chances at advancing to the Quarterfinal stage in Madrid ended when they could not equal Argentina in percentage of sets won in their Group matches. The U.S., which lost to Canada, 2-1, on Tuesday, was competing for one of the Quarterfinal spots available to second-place Group teams, but was eliminated via tiebreakers by the time Querrey and Sock took the court.

Still, the two Davis Cup veterans matched the energy their rookie counterparts put forth earlier in the night. Opelka took 12th-ranked Fabio Fognini to three sets before falling in the opener, 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-3, then Taylor Fritz scored an inspired upset of world No. 8 Matteo Berrettini, 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-2.