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The youngsters leading off the United States Davis Cup team’s lineup took care of business on Friday to give the most decorated doubles team in history a shot at a clinching farewell today.
Reilly Opelka and Taylor Fritz won their singles matches in straight sets at Blaisdell Arena to give the U.S. a commanding lead over Uzbekistan to open the first Davis Cup event held in Hawaii in 28 years.
Opelka rode his powerful serve to a 6-2, 7-5 win over tour veteran Denis Istomin and Fritz breezed past Sanjar Fayziev 6-1, 6-2 and the U.S. will take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five into today’s 1 p.m. doubles match.
Bob and Mike Bryan, coming off their 119th career title together, close out their Davis Cup careers against Istomin and Fayziev with a chance to send the U.S. back to Madrid in November for the 18-team finals.
“It’s ideal, for sure,” U.S. captain Mardy Fish said. “The Bryans have been in this position quite a lot over the years and I for one am glad on their last one (they’re) given a chance to clinch the tie and I’m sure these guys are too.
“(Opelka and Fritz) played great today. The first match was really impressive by Reilly, and Taylor, not knowing too much about his opponent, came out and played pretty impressive tennis. These guys keep getting better and better every time I see them live. … They’re building something really special as far as this team is concerned.”
Bob Bryan spoke Thursday of brothers looking for a “cleansing” of their last Davis Cup match, a loss to Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig in 2016 as Croatia rallied from a 2-0 deficit to eliminate the U.S. in the quarterfinals in Portland, Ore.
The Bryans announced their retirement from the team competition after that tie but were lured back by Fish for this week’s trip to Hawaii and have a chance to exit on a higher note before their full-time retirement later this year.
While the Bryans enter today’s match with a U.S. record 24 doubles team victories in Davis Cup play, Opelka and Fritz earned their first and second respectively on Friday.
Opelka, ranked 38th in the world entering the week, went 0-2 in his Davis Cup debut at the finals last November and fired 10 aces in Friday’s opener to fend off Istomin in his breakthrough win.
“I came out firing right away,” Opelka said. “I thought I had a great first return game. I had one shaky service game there, but after that it was smooth sailing for me on my serve and I put so much pressure on him. I think the whole match I was running him a lot, I was defending well, I think from every angle of the court I was dictating play.”
Opelka faced one break point in the first set, which he erased with a cross-court forehand, and stayed on serve at 2-2. He lost just five more points over the next four games to close out the set.
Although he said the court conditions made it tough on serves, the 6-foot-11 Opelka won 21 of his first 22 points on serve in the second set, starting with a run of 13 straight. Istomin had to battle harder to hold serve but managed to keep pace until Opelka converted a break to take a 6-5 lead. Istomin got to deuce in the final game before Opelka fired his 10th ace of the match and put away a smash on match point.
“It’s pretty dead, I’d say, so you have to really force it a lot to get the ball to move,” Opelka said. “With that being said I had to go for more on my serve, I had to force it a little more, otherwise it just kind of sits.”
Fritz, the highest-ranked player in the U.S. lineup at No. 24, followed by cruising through the first three games before Fayziev, who arrived in Honolulu at No. 498, put up a hint of resistance. Fayziev finally held serve at 5-1, but Fritz quickly closed out the set.
Fritz, who played in the Hawaii Open at the Stan Sheriff Center in December, outlasted Fayziev in a 12-point game to earn his first break of the second set to go up 3-2 and continued to keep the pressure on to make quick work of the 25-year-old.
“My plan was to kind of just press him with my power so he couldn’t really get into the match,” Fritz said of his first career meeting with Fayziev.
USTA donates $15,000 to local tennis
The United States Tennis Association announced Friday that it will donate $15,000 to the USTA Hawaii Pacific Section. The gift through the USTA’s Davis Cup Legacy Program will go toward court improvements at the Donald A. Andrews Diamond Head Tennis Center.
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