USA seal Davis Cup Finals spot, captain David Nainkin taking it one step at a time: “The first step is to actually qualify and that’s what we’ve done”

With victories for Tommy Paul, Mackenzie McDonald and the partnership of Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek, they made it 3-0 that gave them the victory in the Davis Cup Qualifier. Denis Kudla achieved another victory in a fourth match with the series sentenced.

In international competitions, the United States team is always one of the most dangerous, they currently have 10 players in the top 50, and despite not being present several of their best players, they easily beat the Uzbekistan team.

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After reach the Davis Cup group stage, new US captain David Nainkin spoke about his victory:

"It's one step at a time. The first step is to actually qualify and that's what we've done, but we don't really look further than that and well done to everybody that was involved in this process and we look forward to the next steps.”

Mackenzie McDonald (63rd), who knocked out Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open, won his match comfortably in straight sets against Sergey Fomin (366th) 6-4, 6-1. Then came the turn of the team's first single player Tommy Paul (19th), who also got the victory against Khumoyun Sultanov (480th) in straight sets (6-1, 7-6).

In the doubles, Ram and Krajicek showed their hierarchy to go 6-2, 6-4 against Sanjar Fayziev and Fomin. With these matches the United States advanced to the round, and Denis Kudla defeated Amir Milushev to end the series 4-0.

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David Nainkin (who replaced Mardy Fish as captain a month ago), especially highlighted the performance in doubles: “I was excited to see Raj and Austin play today.”

"They've practiced well all week, they had five great days of preparation and as anticipated, they came out really sharp and got the early break in the first set. After that, it was like two freight trains. There was no stopping them."

Finally, the former doubles World No. 1 highlighted the performance that the Uzbekistan team showed despite being low ranking:

“Ranking-wise, they're the underdogs, they're not the favorites in this match. But even in the singles, they tried their best and they really fought until the end and that's a pretty good quality to have. It helps you even maybe win some matches you're not supposed to win."