Sock, Ram secure U.S. win in Davis Cup qualifier
Jack Sock and Rajeev Ram wrapped up a Davis Cup qualifier for the United States by beating JuanSebastian Cabal and Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday in Las Vegas.
The victory by Sock and Ram gave the United States a 3-0 lead in the best-of-5 qualifier. The Americans will join 11 other teams moving into the group stage in September.
Sock and Ram slapped hands with their teammates. Sock then grabbed an American flag and led a victory lap around the indoor hard court at the Reno Events Center.
“I love being out here, I love representing this country,” said Sock, who was playing in his 11th Davis Cup tie. “It’s the best country in the world, so I love wearing the red, white and blue.”
Sock said it was an easy transition playing with Ram.
“Raj is playing some of the best doubles in the world out of anybody. I feel like the combination was easy and we’re about as polar opposite as you can get but I think it goes well with our styles and everything,” Sock said. “He makes my job a lot easier out there. It was just a great feeling to finish it off the first match today.”
Ram, 37, was playing in his second tie.
“It’s not only the guys here, there are some guys that aren’t here that are part of the squad,” he said. “We just played for each other, played for our country and I think we have a good chance to go a long way.”
In other Davis Cup action, France, Spain and Argentina eased into the Davis Cup Finals, while Belgium scraped past host Finland 3-2 in the qualifiers.
Australia came from behind to beat Hungary
3-2 in Sydney, as did Italy against Slovakia in Bratislava.
France ticked all of its boxes in defeating Ecuador 4-0 in Pau, its first home tie since the 2018 final.
Arthur Rinderknech earned his first singles win,
Benjamin Bonzi won on debut, and the doubles team of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut remained unbeaten in six years.
Spain took out Romania 3-1 in Marbella. After Roberto Bautista Agut and 19th-ranked Carlos Alcaraz, on debut, won the opening singles on Friday, Romania pegged them back in the doubles when Marius Copil and Horia Tecau — playing Davis Cup for 13 years — won. But Bautista Agut clinched the tie in beating Copil, in his third match in two days, 6-2, 6-3.
A strong Argentina team led by Diego Schwartzman and Horacio Zeballos beat the Czech Republic 4-0 in Buenos Aires for the loss of one set.
• Elsewhere: Roger Federer said any tournament comeback from his knee surgery last year will not be until at least the late summer. The 40-year-old tennis great gave an update on his lengthy rehabilitation to Swiss broadcaster SRF.
ETC.
• MLB: Max Scherzer favors a radical reworking of the playoffs, one that would have the higher seed in the first round of an expanded postseason start a best-of-5 series with a 1-0 lead. Major League Baseball and locked-out players, who resume talks Sunday, both would expand the postseason from 10 teams — that’s been the field since 2012, other than the 16 teams in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season. The union prefers 12 and the parties appear headed toward that number, but Scherzer said players would consider 14 if clubs would agree to the “ghost win” format.
• Auto racing: The Haas Formula One team has terminated Russian driver Nikita Mazepin’s contract “with immediate effect” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The decision comes on the back of F1’s decision to terminate its contract with the Russian GP. That contract had been until 2025.
• Soccer: Nice upended French league leader Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 with a score from Andy Delort off the bench and moved into second place. ... Liverpool won its seventh straight game in the English Premier League by beating West Ham 1-0 to move within three points of leader Manchester City. ... Cindy Parlow Cone was re-elected to a four-year team as U.S. Soccer Federation president, beating predecessor Carlos Cordeiro in an endorsement of the governing body’s settlement of a lawsuit by women players.
• Skiing: Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States took a clear lead in the World Cup overall standings by placing second in a tricky super-G won by the unheralded Romane Miradoli at Lenzerheide, Switzerland. Shiffrin and Petra Vlhova, the defending overall champion, started the race tied on points after 29 World Cup events this season and eight left this month.
• Gymnastics: Russian and Belarusian gymnasts and officials are banned from international competition indefinitely, the sport’s global governing body announced Friday, citing “the massive escalation of the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.”