Team USA’s run in the 2022 Davis Cup came to an end as they lost to Team Italy in the quarterfinals of the competition yesterday.
Rajeev Ram is one of the best doubles players in the world at the moment. He recently won the ATP Finals doubles title alongside Joe Salisbury by defeating the team of Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic. Ram is also the top-ranked American doubles player and is currently ranked world No. 3 in the doubles circuit. He won four titles this year including the US Open title.
With such accolades, it was hard to fathom how he wasn’t included in Team USA for the Davis Cup quarter-final encounter against Italy. USA lost to Italy and to make matters worse, a defeat in the doubles match led to it.
Ram, meanwhile, seemed to have taken a dig at Fish on social media as he posted the following USA’s defeat to Italy:
“How’s everyone’s thanksgiving going?”
USA’s captain Mardy Fish would have hoped for a win to stop the tennis world’s already-heated discussion regarding why Ram wasn’t a part of the team. That didn’t happen but Fish did not relent under pressure from the fans and critics as he said that USA would have lost even if Ram was in the team because Italy were the better team on the night.
“We’ve got a lot of great players that play for the U.S. Rajeev is one of them. He wasn’t on the team this year, and that’s my choice. This is the team that I put on the court, and so if anyone has an issue with that, that’s on me. Rajeev has played. He’s played and he’s played well. He’s played for us a few times with Jack, and this is a team that I was excited to see. Also, Jack and Frances are a phenomenal team. They have played and beaten some really good teams in some competitions as well, and so we had a lot of options.
“This was the team we went with today. But if Rajeev was here or not, those guys were going to win today. They played well and they’re too good.”
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