The US entered their first round matchup with Great Britain riding a winning streak of four ties against the Brits and not having lost to them since 1935. Additionally the British hadn’t won a World Group first round tie since 1986. We knew that Andy Murray was a heavy favorite to beat both Americans and with the Bryan brothers as big favorites on Saturday in the doubles rubber it seemed likely this would come down to James Ward’s play as the #2 singles player for the Brits. Could Ward steal a rubber and take the tie for Great Britain?
Well we were right… it did come down to Ward, and amazingly it came down to his first matchup. It wasn’t his Sunday rubber with the #2 US singles player where he made his mark, it was his Friday rubber against #1 US singles player Sam Querrey where Ward stole a match and basically gave Great Britain the tie.
Querrey started off his match with Ward in great fashion taking set one quickly with a 6-1 win. Set two was much more competitive and came down to a tiebreak where Ward was able to even things with a 7-3 tiebreak win, the first sign of trouble for Querrey. Querrey came back to win set three 6-3 and even held a 4-2 lead in set four before the wheels came off. Ward went on to win 10 of the final 11 games, winning four straight to take set four 6-4 and then winning set five 6-1. It was a distasteful turn of events for Querrey and the US.
karlnorling via Compfight cc
Querrey did give a strong effort on Sunday against Murray as he forced a tiebreaker in both of the first two sets. He lost the first 7-5 before winning the second 7-3 to even things at one set each. Murray then shut the door dominating the rest of the way en route to a 6-1 and 6-3 wins in the final two sets to clinch things for Great Britain.
What does this mean for the US?
It means that instead of trying to reach the final for the first time since 2007 the US now is focused on not falling out of the World Group. Its’ been 26 years since the US was not playing in the World Group and they don’t want to end that streak anytime soon. The US will play in one of the World Group playoffs in September against a country still to be determined. Potential opponents will be determined after the next round of play in early April. The US will be one of the eight seeded teams in the draw and so we know the US won’t face any of the top eight ranked teams that are involved with the playoffs. If the favorites win in April the eight teams in the un-seeded pool should be Austria, Croatia, Brazil, Ukraine, Israel, Uzbekistan, India and the Dominican Republic. The US could have to travel for the tie, and depending on the matchup it could be a bit tricky, but the US will likely be favored no matter what.
The US right now is not a great men’s tennis country and anytime they face off against an opponent with one of the best players in the world the margin is going to be thin. The US had some bad luck in drawing one of the few countries that aren’t among the top eight in the world and still have one of the very top players. The US also were without their best player in John Isner who might have had a better chance to upset Andy Murray. Hopefully Isner is healthy for the US come September and the US can keep their place in the World Group for 2015.
