Tennis-Paul and McDonald lead USA 2-0 over Uzbekistan in Davis Cup

(Reuters) Mackenzie McDonald and Tommy Paul gave the United States a 2-0 lead in their Davis Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan on Friday, winning their singles matches in straight sets in Tashkent.

Fresh off his Australian Open foray, McDonald wasted little time getting the US record 32-time Davis Cup winners on the table at the Olympic Tennis School’s indoor arena.

After notching the biggest win of his career when he toppled Australian Open top seed Rafa Nadal in straight sets in the second round, McDonald beat Sergey Fomin 6-4 6-1 in just over an hour and sealed the match with an ace.

McDonald is one of three Davis Cup debutants for the American team, along with Denis Kudla and Austin Krajicek, and interim captain David Nainkin said the tournament is a huge priority.

Paul, who reached his maiden Grand Slam semi-final at Melbourne Park last week and rose to a career-high 19th in the world, won 6-1 7-6(6) over Khumoyun Sultanov, who is 461 steps down. American.

Although Sultanov had his moments in the contest and won a couple of long rallies to earn the applause of the arena’s sparse crowd, he was no match for Paul’s power as the American sealed the opening set with an ace.

Sultanov looked set for a surprise comeback in the second set as he raced out to a 4-0 lead, but Paul quickly recovered to level the set at 4-4 before winning the tiebreak, sealing victory with a forehand winner at the net.

The singles rubber will be played on Saturday, with Americans Rajeev Ram and Krajicek facing Fomin and Sanjar Ayziev before the reverse singles matches.

With 24 nations competing in qualifiers this weekend, the 12 winners will advance to the group stage of the Davis Cup finals in September, along with 2022 champions Canada and runner-up Australia, while Spain and Italy both received wildcards.

(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Radnedge)