A tight win by Sebastian Korda and a blowout victory by Taylor Fritz gave the United States a 2-0 lead over Colombia in a Davis Cup qualifying match on Friday in Reno, Nev.
Korda edged Nicolas Mejia 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 before Fritz blitzed Alejandro Gonzalez 6-1, 6-0.
The United States needs just one win in the three Saturday matches to seal the best-of-five series. A doubles match pitting the United States’ Rajeev Ram and Jack Sock against Colombia’s Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah will be followed by the reverse singles matchup.
Four nations are on the verge of advancing after the opening day of Davis Cup qualifying action. Spain leads 2-0 over Romania, the Netherlands holds a 2-0 edge over Canada, Argentina is up 2-0 against the Czech Republic and France holds a 2-0 lead vs. Ecuador.
Seven other series are tied 1-1: South Korea-Austria, Finland-Belgium, Slovakia-Italy, Brazil-Germany, Norway-Kazakhstan, Australia-Hungary and Sweden-Japan.
The 12 teams that win their qualifying series will advance to the Davis Cup group stage in mid-September, joining 2021 runner-up Croatia plus wild-card invitees Great Britain and Serbia.
Russia would have advanced automatically as the 2021 champion, but the country has been barred from national competitions by the International Tennis Federation. Davis Cup officials plan to add a replacement for Russia.
–Field Level Media
