Aurélien Canot, Media365, published on Thursday November 21, 2024 at 10:55 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.
How we meet again. A year after Italy's dry victory (2-0) in the final against Australia, the two teams will face each other again in a remake of this final of the last edition, in the semi-finals of this 119th edition of the Davis Cup. Australia, a regular, was the first to validate its ticket and set a possible meeting with its executioner in the 2023 final. Unhappy finalists of the last two editions of the Davis Cup – in 2022 against Canada and therefore the year last against Italy – the Australians once again moved closer to a new final, this Thursday after their 2-1 victory against 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, had 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 had 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 had easily taken over (6-4, 6-4) over the opposing tandem.
Sinner and Italy stunning!
The ball was then in Italy's court, who did not miss the opportunity to join the Australians in the semi-finals with the hope of making them suffer the same fate as last year. Opposed to Argentina in the last match of the day, the Italians nevertheless trembled. Because the first point of this match was Francesco Cerundolo, an easy winner over Lorenzo Musetti (6-4, 6-1) in the first singles which brought it to the Argentines, then only one victory away from qualification. The problem is that to score this second decisive point, the Argentines had to count on a defeat for Jannik Sinner in the second singles or in the doubles, which the world number 1 finally played alongside Matteo Berrettini. Unfortunately for Argentina, the best player in the world at the moment was again fabulous, both to pulverize Sebastian Baez (6-2, 6-1) and to then dominate (6-4, 7-5) alongside his teammate for a day author of a mammoth match the Argentine pair, composed of Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Alteni. With a Sinner still as imperial, Italy can dream more than ever of the double. Even if this will already require another victory against a very tough Australian team.
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