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By Richard Pagliaro | @TennisNow | Monday, January 6, 2025
Photo credit: Mark Howard
A pair of Top 50-ranked singles players and a veteran doubles duo will lead the United States Davis Cup team.
Captain Bob Bryan today named Alex Michelsen, Marcos Giron, Mackenzie McDonald, Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram to the U.S. team in its 2025 Davis Cup Qualifying First Round tie vs. Chinese Taipei.
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The tie is set for January 31-February 1st on an indoor hard court at the Taipei Tennis Center in Taipei City.
The fact that this Qualifier starts days after the Australian Open ends on January 26th may well be one reason why Top 40-ranked American stars including Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe, Ben Shelton, Sebastian Korda and Brandon Nakashima are not playing the Davis Cup opener.
The USA-Chinese Taipei tie – one of 13 home-and-away ties being played around the world as part of the first round of Qualifying – is a best-of-five match series.
The tie begins with two singles matches on Friday, January 31st. A doubles match and two reverse singles matches will follow on Saturday, February 1st, with the first nation to win three matches advancing to the second round of Qualifying – a format change new this year.
The USA-Chinese Taipei winner will play the winner of Korea and Czechia in the Qualifying Second Round, held September 12-14, also in the home-and-away format. The Qualifying Second Round winners then advance to the eight-nation Davis Cup Final 8 that will crown this year’s Davis Cup champion in November in Bologna, Italy.
Italy is two-time defending Davis Cup champion.
This will be the first meeting between the USA and Chinese Taipei in Davis Cup. Chinese Taipei was chosen as the host nation by random drawing. Both nations competed in the Qualifying pool in 2024. The U.S. team advanced through to the Group Stage of the Finals and November’s Final 8, falling to Australia in the quarterfinals. Chinese Taipei lost in Qualifying but won a World Group I tie vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina in September to rise back into Qualifying this year.
Here are the USTA’s player bios for Team USA:
Alex Michelsen, 20, is currently ranked No. 41 in singles and will be making his Davis Cup debut. A native of Laguna Hills, Calif., he’s reached three ATP tournament singles finals in the last two years and broke into the Top 50 for the first time this summer, becoming the youngest American to do so since Sam Querrey in 2007.
Marcos Giron, 31, is currently ranked No. 45 in singles and will also be making his Davis Cup debut. A two-time Olympian from Thousand Oaks, Calif., Giron won his first ATP singles title this past summer in Newport and reached his career-high singles ranking of No. 37 in August.
Mackenzie McDonald, 29, is ranked No. 130 in singles but has been ranked as high as No. 37, in the fall of 2023. McDonald, from Piedmont, Calif., made his Davis Cup debut in 2023 and has gone 3-1 in singles across four different ties, most recently the 2024 Finals Group Stage.
Rajeev Ram, 40, is a former world doubles No. 1 currently ranked No. 28. He’s gone 10-3 in Davis Cup doubles since debuting in 2021. Ram, from Carmel, Ind., is a four-time Grand Slam men’s doubles champion and a two-time ATP Finals doubles champion and earned his second Olympic medal at the Paris Olympics this past summer, earning silver with Krajicek.
Austin Krajicek, 34, is also a former world doubles No. 1, currently ranked No. 42. He’s 6-2 in Davis Cup doubles since debuting in 2023. A Tampa native, Krajicek won the men’s doubles title at the 2023 French Open and earned his first Olympic medal at the Paris Olympics this past summer, earning silver with Ram.
