The United States crashed out of Davis Cup qualifying in stunning fashion over the weekend, blowing a 2-1 lead to lose both reverse singles matches and hand Czechia a 3-2 win in Prague. It was the second consecutive year the same two nations faced each other, and the USA collapsed in a similar fashion. US captain and Hall of Famer Bob Bryan did not hold back on how Czechia should not have been in their opposition at this stage of the tournament. 

“I think their team and our team are two of the best four teams in the whole world, and we shouldn’t be playing in the round of 16,” Bryan said after the match. “I think everyone here knows that, by the strength of our nations.” 

He went further, pointing directly at where he believed this tie should have been staged instead of an early qualifying round in front of a raucous home crowd at Prague’s O2 Arena. “So maybe they can get the seeding right next year, and we can play in Bologna, where this match belongs.”

The U.S. is in fifth place in the Davis Cup standings, while Czechia is in seventh, which would normally suggest that they should play each other deep into the Final 8 in Bologna, not in an early qualifying round. Instead, Czechia was seeded a lowly 10th heading into this year’s competition, dropping them into a second-round qualifying draw against a US team ranked well above them. 

The Americans were up 2-1 in the tie after Learner Tien defeated Jakub Mensik, and the doubles pairing og Christian Harrison and Austin Krajicek saved match points to win the match in the third-set tiebreak. However, the top seed could not hold his end of the tie. 

Ben Shelton was up against Mensik in the reverse singles, leading by a set and on serve in the second, and then the Czech made a comeback to close out the match 7-5, 4-6, 3-6. 

Jiri Lehecka had the winning hand in the last rubber as he defeated Tien in the final rubber to complete the sweep and cap Czechia’s second straight comeback victory over the Americans at this exact stage in the tournament.

Shelton had also lost his opening singles match of the tie to Lehecka, having looked visibly weary just days after a taxing US Open campaign which ended the previous Sunday. Despite that, Bryan made sure to give the credit to the opponents rather than leaning on excuses. 

“They deserve it, they played fantastic tennis,” he said. “You gotta tip your cap to Mensik and Lehecka, the way they played today.”

A near-identical collapse to last year

The exact same scenario played out last autumn in Delray Beach, when the US also carried a 2-1 lead into the reverse singles only to watch Lehecka and Mensik beat Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe back-to-back to steal that tie as well. 

The doubles match was largely ignored in the post-match action, but was a truly great tennis match, with Krajicek landing an inside-out forehand return winner to put up a match point in the deciding tiebreak and eventually winning it. “This realistically could have been a final,” Krajicek said afterward. “It’s definitely one of my favorite matches I’ve played in my career.”

Apart from Shelton and Tien, the US squad also boasted Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe, and Tommy Paul as alternates, so this early exit comes as a surprise. This exit stalls the USA’s ambition to win the Davis Cup since 2007.