Retired American tennis player Mardy Fish is out as captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team after the U.S. Tennis Association said Friday that the two sides "mutually agreed to move in a new direction."
The USTA announced the change as part of a news release that began by listing the members of the American roster for a qualifying match-up at Uzbekistan on Feb. 3-4. Those players are doubles specialist Rajeev Ram, Tommy Paul, Jenson Brooksby, Mackenzie McDonald and Austin Krajicek.
Ram was notably left off the squad by Fish for the Davis Cup Finals in November. That was shortly after the 38-year-old Ram reached the No. 1 ranking in men's doubles for the first time on the heels of winning a second consecutive US Open doubles championship and third Grand Slam trophy overall.
Fish, a former professional player who had been the U.S. captain since 2019, and Davis Cup coach Bob Bryan were fined $10,000 apiece in November by the International Tennis Integrity Agency for promoting a gambling operator via social media.
They also were given four-month bans that were provisionally set aside and would be enforced only if there was another breach of rules during a probationary period that ends in March.
The United States reached the Davis Cup quarterfinals in 2022, losing to Italy at that stage. The Americans have won a record 32 titles in the international team competition for men, most recently in 2007.
The USTA said Friday that an interim captain for the matches against Uzbekistan would be picked "in the near future," while information about the search for someone to fill the position on a full-time basis will come "at a later date."
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
News from USTA:
Mardy Fish is out as US Davis Cup captain.
After the controversial November snub, Rajeev Ram is back on the roster for the next tie in Uzbekistan.