Aurélien Canot, Media365, published on Thursday November 21, 2024 at 5:32 p.m.
Forced to play a decisive doubles after Taylor Fritz tied the two teams, Australia finally got the better of the United States thanks to Matthew Ebden and Jordan Thompson. Finalists of the last two editions, the Australians find themselves once again in the last four.
Australia is a regular. Unhappy finalists of the last two editions of the Davis Cup – in 2022 against Canada and last year against Italy – the Australians once again moved closer to a new final, this Thursday after their 2-1 victory against in the United States after the decisive doubles. The loser of the last two finals, in search of a new coronation in the competition since 2003 (it would be Australia's 29th), had the best start in this meeting following a victory for Thanasi Kokkinakis at the expense of Ben Shelton in a completely crazy and interminable match (2h17) which saw the former win… 16 points to 14 in a decisive game (the longest in five years in Davis Cup) during which the 77th in the ranking was forced to discard four match points to prevent the Americans from taking the lead before the second singles, which pitted Alex De Minaur against Taylor Fritz.
Fritz had reset the counters
A tone above Thursday in this second match of the world number 9, the number 4 in the ranking and recent finalist of the Masters but also of the US Open, each time with defeats against the world number 1 Jannik Sinner, did not never trembled and easily defeated (6-3, 6-4) his opponent, whom he had already beaten (but in three sets this time after losing the first) in Turin last week during the Masters Tournament . Fritz thus reset the counters to zero (and the two teams tied), hoping that Tommy Paul and Shelton, called to play this decisive double, would follow suit and send the United States to the semi-finals during this 48th clash between the two countries in the event. It didn't happen. In the same way that Fritz had dominated De Minaur a little earlier, Matthew Ebden, the former number 1 in the specialty, and Jordan Thompson easily took the upper hand (6-4, 6-4) over the opposing tandem. In the semi-final, Australia could find Italy and Sinner in a repeat of the last final, which saw the Australians lose 2-0.
