Opelka, Nakashima survive 'epic day' to help USA past Chile
pThe United States swept Chile 3-0 in Wednesdayrsquo;s Davis Cup Finals Group Stage clash, but the victory was less straightforward than the scoreline suggested. The Americans needed a deciding-set tie-break in all three matches in Zhuhai./p
pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/reilly-opelka/o522/overview'Reilly Opelka/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/brandon-nakashima/n0ae/overview'Brandon Nakashima/a led the singles charge before a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/austin-krajicek/ka00/overview'Austin Krajicek/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/rajeev-ram/r548/overview'Rajeev Ram/a secured the clean sweep for Team USA./p
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ldquo;It was truly an epic day of tennis for both teams," said United States team captain a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/bob-bryan/b588/overview'Bob Bryan/a. "Everyone showed a lot of heart, a lot of guts. Hats off to the Chileans. Hats off to our guys who were really digging deep, especially in the big moments./p
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"I donrsquo;t think itrsquo;s ever happened in Davis Cup that all matches went to the third-set breakerhellip; historic day. Just feeling very, very proud of the players.rdquo;/p
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Opelka began the day by hammering 27 aces to edge past a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/cristian-garin/gd64/overview'Cristian Garin/a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(3) and improve to 2-1 in their Lexus ATP Head2Head series./p
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ldquo;My serve is the shot that had been taking me the longest to get back since my injury,rdquo; said Opelka, who is playing just his seventh event of the season.ldquo;I didnrsquo;t serve well at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/us-open/560/overview'US Open/a, but every week itrsquo;s been getting better. Irsquo;ve been starting to get the accuracy back./p
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ldquo;I think itrsquo;s going to continue to progress and get a little bit better and back to where it was, because you know I think it was one of the best.rdquo;/p
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Nakashima, fresh off a career-best fourth-round run at his home Slam, made his Davis Cup debut in style. The 23-year-old overcame World No. 22 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alejandro-tabilo/te30/overview'Alejandro Tabilo/a 7-6(5), 2-6, 7-6(3) after two hours, 44 minutes in humid conditions./p
blockquote class="twitter-tweet"
p lang="en" dir="ltr"Tie: SEALED ????????a href="https://twitter.com/b_nakashima?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@b_nakashima/a pulls through a brutal encounter against Tabilo 7-6(5) 2-6 7-6(3)!a href="https://twitter.com/DavisCup?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@DavisCup/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DavisCup?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#DavisCup/a a href="https://t.co/P60tUPyWXd"pic.twitter.com/P60tUPyWXd/a/p
mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1833795073114263586?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"September 11, 2024/a/blockquote
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ldquo;It feels amazing,rdquo; said Nakashima. ldquo;It was my first ever Davis Cup win and to do it like that was super special. To get the win for the team was super important. I was really happy with the way I was playing.rdquo;/p
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Krajicek and Ram, who partnered to win the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/scores/archive/paris/96/2024/results'Paris Olympics/a silver medal, closed the day by rallying past a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tomas-barrios-vera/bs86/overview'Tomas Barrios Vera/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/matias-soto/s0ek/overview'Matias Soto/a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(3). The Americans won 85 per cent of their first-serve points and saved four of the five break points they faced./p
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The United States will next clash against Slovakia on Friday. Chile faces Germany on Thursday./p
pIn Group D action, Great Britain leaned on tour-veteran a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/daniel-evans/e687/overview'Daniel Evans/a to pull ahead of Finland before Davis Cup debutant a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/billy-harris/hd68/overview'Billy Harris/a secured the win. Evans, 34, downed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/eero-vasa/v993/overview'Eero Vasa/a 7-6(3), 6-2 after dropping just three points behind his first serve. Harris overcame a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/otto-virtanen/v0am/overview'Otto Virtanen/a 6-4, 7-6(4)./p
pFinland's a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/harri-heliovaara/h808/overview'Harri Heliovaara/a and Virtanen won the doubles match with a 7-6(4), 7-5 victory against Evans and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/neal-skupski/sl22/overview'Neal Skupski/a./p
pemContribution from a href="https://www.daviscup.com/en/home.aspx"daviscup.com/a in the report./em/p
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