Taylor Fritz went back and forth with Brayden Schnur over Rajeev Ram’s exclusion from USA’s Davis Cup Squad
The biggest talking point in the tennis world at the moment is Rajeev Ram’s exclusion from USA’s Davis Cup team. This intensified when America’s top-ranked doubles player took an indirect dig at USA’s captain Mardy Fish following his team’s loss against Italy in the quarterfinals of the Davis Cup.
Rajeev Ram posted a cryptic message on his social media account following Team USA’s defeat in the Davis Cup quarterfinals. He wrote:
“How’s everyone’s thanksgiving going?”
Mardy Fish, when asked to comment on Ram’s absence from the team, explained that even if the veteran player was on the team, Italy would have still won as they played better tennis.
The majority of the fans voiced their support for Ram and couldn’t believe that a player of his quality was ignored by Fish. Ram and Joe Salisbury won the ATP Finals doubles event and are one of the best teams on the ATP circuit at the moment. Ram also won the US Open doubles event for the second straight year. His absence had led to various speculations and criticism came in abundance toward Fish for his unpopular decision.
Canadian tennis player – Brayden Schnur also showed his surprise at Ram’s exclusion on Twitter. He blamed it on the egos of the players on the team. The 27-year-old wrote:
“Look at the players in the team. Take a look at their egos. We’re all smart enough to put the pieces together. I feel for Rajeev, great player even better man.”
American No. 1 in singles, Taylor Fritz, who was on USA’s team, got into a war of words with Schnur. Fritz hit back saying, ‘Please elaborate on my “ego” Brayden, would love to hear about how that played a part in how the team was chosen.’
Schnur replied by saying: “Don’t hate the player, hate the game. I call it as I see it. Don’t tell me benching a number 1 was in your guys favor.”
Fritz felt that Schnur was avoiding his question. The former tweeted once again and wrote: “Still dodging the question… I mean if ur gonna take shots at us u can at least elaborate on it no?”
Let’s take a look at how fans reacted upon seeing this war of words on Twitter between two contemporary players.
In the midst of all the controversy surrounding Rajeev Ram’s absence in Team USA at the Davis Cup, Tommy Paul put out a tweet taking a dig at the world No. 3 in doubles.
Paul took to his Twitter account and wrote that Ram struggles against singles players of all kinds and Fish was justified in not picking the veteran on the team. Paul’s choice of words hurt the sentiments of tennis fans as he wrote:
“You obviously didn’t have tennis tv in your parents basement during Glasgow….Doubles number 1 or 100 he struggles against singles players ranked 1-8,000, singles or doubles”
Paul went on to delete this tweet later but the damage had already been done. Fans lashed out at the 25-year-old for his opinion.
Meanwhile, Italy would be taking on Canada in the semifinals of the Davis Cup. Canada made it to the semifinals after getting the better of Germany in a thrilling affair. These two nations have met each other only a couple of times in the history of the Davis Cup. Canada has triumphed on both occasions. In 2013, they met for the first time and Canada won 3-1. Their most recent meeting was at the 2019 edition of the tournament in the group stage. Canada won that encounter by 2-1 margin.
More Tennis news
Follow our dedicated Tennis page for instant Tennis news and updates