We’re only halfway through the Davis Cup quarter-finals, but we’ve already witnessed perhaps the most epic match of the competition. The first match between the United States and Australia – the two most successful countries in the history of the Cup – ended with a score of 1-6, 6-4, 6(14)-7.
Ben Shelton (USA) started weak, took a while to find his feet, but then recovered from a terrible 1-6 set 27 minutes in and pushed the match into the third set and a drawn-out tie break against Thanasi Kokkinakis.
But that wasn’t enough. The tiebreaker reached 14-16, one of the longest in Davis Cup history (the longest was 19-17 between Young-Jun Kim (Korea) and Aqeel Khan (Pakistan)), but an error of the American gave victory to Kokkinakis.
The second match is currently being played between two heavyweights, both in the ATP top 10: Taylor Fritz (nº4) and Alex de Miñaur (nº9). Both nations are still favorites for the Davis Cup, but only one of them will reach Saturday’s semi-final… and risks facing world number one Jannik Sinner if Italy wins this post- noon.
