VILNIUS, Lithuania: Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek secured a spot for the United States in the Davis Cup Finals group round by winning the doubles match against Ukraine on Friday for an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the best-of-five-match qualifying series.
Ram and Krajicek beat Illya Beloborodko and Oleksii Krutykh 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. The Americans have a combined five Grand Slam titles between them and each has been ranked No. 1 in doubles.
Their victory followed a successful opening day of singles for captain Bob Bryan’s US team Thursday, when Sebastian Korda beat Krutykh 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-4 and Chris Eubanks replaced an injured Taylor Fritz in the lineup and overwhelmed Viacheslav Bielinskyi 6-3, 6-2. On Friday, Fritz beat Orlov Vladyslav 6-3, 6-4 to make it 4-0.
Ukraine was supposed to host the United States for these qualifying matches. But they were moved to an indoor hard court at SEB Arena in Lithuania because of the ongoing war in Ukraine, which began when Russia invaded in February 2022.