USA, Australia Tied Up After First Day of Davis Cup
The United States and Australia both won one singles match on the opening day of the Davis Cup first-round on Friday at the Kooyang Lawn Tennis Club in Melbourne, Australia, bringing the contest to 1-1 with three matches left to be played.
John Isner put the Americans on top to start things off, rolling past Sam Groth 7-6(2), 6-2, 6-2 in the opening match.
“I played a great tiebreaker and had a lot of momentum from that point forward,” said Isner. “Any time you can win a match in a situation like this you’re on cloud nine, and you feel like you’ve got a lot of confidence.”
But Bernard Tomic answered the bell for the Australians. The 23-year old Tomic defeated Jack Sock 7-6(2), 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 to even things up.
Tomic secured a late break in the fourth set to take a 5-4 lead, and calmly served out the match in the next game to close Sock out.
“Bernie stepped up when we needed him to,” Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt said. “We knew the Americans were going to be tough.”
Australia hasn’t announced who its doubles tandem will be for Saturday’s match, but U.S. captain Jim Courier is confident heading in with Bob and Mike Bryan.
“Bob and Mike Bryan seem to be an advantage in the historical candor of doubles in Davis Cup,” said Courier. “They’ve played awfully well and we feel confident in them. They’ve lost matches too, so we don’t take anything for granted, but I love having them on our side.”
