U.S. captain Bob Bryan: “We just tip our hat to a better team" after Davis Cup defeat

If you were a member of the U.S. team, there was a nightmarish quality to the scene inside the stadium court at the Delray Beach Tennis Center on Saturday night.

It was past 10 p.m., but the late-summer Florida heat and humidity had barely abated. The conditions over the tie’s two days had been described by the players as “tough” and “heavy,” and everyone involved, from the athletes to the officials to the fans, was soaked in sweat.

The loudest noise in the arena came from a single, blaring horn, blown by a fan of the opposing Czech team whenever one of its players won a point. It must have felt like an extra punch to the gut to the Americans every time they made an error. By that stage, there wasn’t a lot of local support to counter it. Many of the U.S. fans who had sat and sweated and cheered for the better for of two days had made their exits.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.

The Davis Cup qualifying tie between the U.S. and Czechia had reached a place where few expected it to end up: a fifth rubber. An hour or so earlier, the States had appeared to be in the driver’s seat. They had won a hard-fought doubles match earlier in the day to take a 2-1 lead. After that, Taylor Fritz had looked like a strong favorite to clinch against Jiri Lehecka, an opponent he had beaten all four times they had played. Fritz had been sick through the week, but he’s also known for coming through in the clutch, and he had already recorded a straight-set win over Jakub Mensik the previous day.

When Fritz fought back to win the second set, and then held at love to level the third at 4-4, there seemed to be little reason for U.S. fans to worry. Lehecka is a pure ball-striker, but not known—or at least not know yet—as a top-tier closer. Last month in Toronto, he lost to Fritz in three excruciatingly close tiebreak sets.

But Davis Cup is a different animal, and playing for a team and country can stiffen the spines of athletes who let their doubts get the better of them when they compete for themselves. Lehecka quickly held his own serve for 5-4, and then made two excellent backhand passes to break Fritz for the match. Out of the blue, Czechia had the momentum.

U.S. captain Bob Bryan had the option of substituting Reilly Opelka for Tiafoe in the fifth match. In hindsight, that looks like it would have been the better move. Tiafoe was 1-6 in Davis Cup coming into Saturday. He had lost early at the US Open and watched his ranking fall out of the Top 25. On Friday, he had won just five games against Lehecka.

But Opelka was 0-1 against Mensik, and Bryan still liked what he had seen from Tiafoe.

“Reilly has been here practicing for seven or eight days,” Bryan said about the possible substitution. “He’s not a bad option. But I didn’t think Frances was hitting the ball poorly tonight. He went up against someone who was seeing it very big ... I don’t think Frances is in a bad spot.”

It didn’t take long for Frances to find himself in a very bad spot on Saturday.

He lost the first 12 points to Mensik, and basically never recovered. Tiafoe is known for slow starts, but if he had managed to find his way through the second set, he had a chance against the Czech, who had already played three sets of doubles earlier in the day.

“Let’s just keep him on the court and see if we can wear him down, keep making the match physical,” Bryan told Tiafoe on the sideline. “You never know what’s going to happen.”

But Tiafoe, who said he couldn’t generate much pace in the heavy conditions, never found the fire, never engaged the crowd the way he famously likes to, and never mounted a serious threat.

Read more: Jakub Mensik finishes off Czech comeback against the United States in Davis Cup

Afterward, Bryan credited the Czechs and their captain, Tomas Berdych, for their preparation. But this was a disappointment. The U.S., with its deep roster and solid doubles team, had a chance to win the Cup for the first time since 2007. The demise began when both No. 2 singles players, Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul, had to withdraw with injuries. It continued with Fritz’s illness. And ended with Tiafoe winning 10 games in four sets.

“We just tip our hat to a better team over the last two days,” Bryan said when it was over.

The U.S. wasn’t the only home team to fall this weekend. In six of the seven ties, the away team emerged victorious. As always in Davis Cup, there were surprising results and stunning performances all around.

Read more: Corentin Moutet overcomes Marin Cilic in tense Davis Cup clincher to send France to Final 8

—91st-ranked Raphael Collignon beat Alex De Minaur and Aleksander Vukic to propel Belgium past favored Australia, in Sydney.

—158th-ranked Jurij Rodionov and 173rd-ranked Lukas Neumayer teamed to knock off a Hungarian team led by the higher-ranked Marton Fucsovics and Fabian Marozsan, in Hungary.

—Spain came back from 0-2 down to Denmark, as Pedro Martinez won a three-set doubles match (with Jaume Munar), and then beat Holger Rune in a third-set tiebreaker on Saturday. That set Pablo Carreño Busta up to complete the reverse sweep, and make Spain the only home winner of the weekend.

That also means the lineup for the Davis Cup Finals is set: Italy, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Czechia, Austria, France, and Argentina will gather in Bologna, Italy, Nov. 18-23 to crown a new Cup winner.