The United States beat Taiwan 4-0 in Saturday’s Davis Cup qualifiers in Taipei City behind the experience of Olympic silver medalists Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram.
Krajicek and Ram set up the Americans’ first home tie in three years by beating Ray Ho and Wu Tung-lin 6-4, 7-6(4).
“Fortunately we were able to finish the job in the first match. We took care of our serve really well,” Krajicek told reporters after the match.
Mackenzie McDonald continued the success by beating Huang Tsung-hao 6-2, 6-3 to give the Americans a 4-0 win. The Americans didn’t drop a single serve in the tie.
Elsewhere, Denmark went from being down 2-0 to Serbia in Copenhagen to coming all the way back for a ticket to the next round.
Japan also had to climb out of a hole, 2-1, to ultimately survive when former World No. 4 Kei Nishikori bested Billy Harris with a 6-2, 6-3 victory in Miki, Japan, to seal the 3-2 win.
Also on Saturday, Austria finished a 4-0 sweep of Finland in Schwechat, Austria; Germany won 3-1 over Israel in Vilnius, Lithuania; Australia won 3-1 over Sweden in Stockholm; and Croatia defeated Slovakia 3-1 in Osijek, Croatia.
Open Occitanie
American qualifier Aleksandar Kovacevic continued his impressive run with a 7-5, 6-4 over No. 1 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia to head to his first ATP final in Montpellier, France.
Kovacevic, 26, is ranked No. 102 in the world but has won 12 of his last 13 matches. In a hard-fought match, Kovacevic edged Rublev 9-8 in aces and saved four of five break points while Rublev only managed two in five opportunities.
Kovacevic will face No. 2 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, who defeated Jesper De Jong of the Netherlands 6-4, 7-6 (4).
–Field Level Media
