Ben Shelton isn’t taking much time off after his run to the U.S. Open final
NEW YORK (AP) — Ben Shelton isn’t taking much time off after his run to the U.S. Open final.
Shelton was confirmed on Monday for the U.S. Davis Cup team that will play the Czech Republic in Prague this week. Then he'll join Team World for the Laver Cup in London the following weekend.
Shelton lost to Alexander Zverev in his first Grand Slam final on Sunday. He moved up to a career-high No. 4 in the rankings on Monday.
Zverev is on Germany's Davis Cup team that will host Croatia in Halle; and he will be on Team Europe for the Laver Cup.
Also named to the U.S. team for the second round of qualifying against the Czechs were Learner Tien, Martin Damm, Christian Harrison and Austin Krajicek.
Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul withdrew from the team.
It will mark Shelton’s second Davis Cup appearance and first since the 2024 finals.
Tien and Damm received their first Davis Cup nomination.
The 20-year-old Tien reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open, while the 22-year-old Damm pushed eventual semifinalist Frances Tiafoe to five sets in the first round.
The U.S. will play the Czechs on Friday and Saturday in a best-of-five series on an indoor hard court at the O2 Arena.
Jakub Mensik, Jiri Lehecka, Tomas Machac and Vit Kopriva were named to the Czech squad.
The winning team advances to the finals in Bologna, Italy, in November.
Besides Germany-Croatia, the other matchups of teams competing for spots to join host Italy at the finals are: Chile vs. Spain; Britain vs. Ecuador; Austria vs. Belgium; South Korea vs. India; and Canada vs. France.
In all, there 52 nations competing in the various Davis Cup levels this weekend.
Alex de Minaur (Australia), Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece) and Casper Ruud (Norway) are among the big names set to represent their nations. Stan Wawrinka — a 2014 Davis Cup winner with Switzerland — will make his final appearance for his country at Brazil in a World Group I matchup.
Wawrinka plans to retire at the end of the year.
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