A late lineup switch by the U.S. team proved costly as a doubles loss to Australia sent the Americans packing on Thursday in Malaga, Spain, extending their Davis Cup title drought to 17 years.

With the best-of-three quarterfinal knotted at 1-1, U.S. Davis Cup captain Bob Bryan opted to swap out Paris Olympic silver medalists Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek for singles players Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul. The move backfired as Shelton and Paul lost 6-4, 6-4 to Jordan Thompson and Matthew Ebden, sending the Aussies into the quarterfinals.

The U.S. holds the Davis Cup record with 32 titles but hasn’t won since Bryan was on the team in 2007, and has not advanced to the semifinals since 2018.

Shelton lost a marathon third-set tiebreaker to Thanasi Kokkinakis as the Australian prevailed 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (14) in the opening singles match. Taylor Fritz responded for the U.S. by taking down Alex de Minaur 6-3, 6-4 in just 71 minutes in a battle of top-10 players in the world.

Meanwhile, Italy defeated Argentina 2-1 and will face Australia in the semifinals on Friday. The other semifinal, which will be held on Thursday, features Germany against the Netherlands.

Against Argentina, World No. 1 Jannik Sinner won his singles match and then teamed up with Matteo Berrettini in the decisive doubles match, defeating Andres Molteni and Maximo Gonzalez 6-4, 7-5.

Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo defeated Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, 6-1 to open the match, but Sinner saved Italy from elimination by taking down Sebastian Baez 6-2, 6-1, forcing doubles to decide the winner.

–Field Level Media