The United States signalled winning intentions Friday in their Davis Cup Qualifier against Uzbekistan, taking a 2-0 lead after the first singles matches.

Debutant Mackenzie McDonald, fresh from an Australian Open outing that saw him take down Rafael Nadal in Melbourne, defeated Uzbekistan’s No.1 Sergey Fomin in the opening rubber of the tie. The 21-year-old Fomin, the No.366 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, delighted the vocal Uzbekistani supporters with flashes of brilliance but the World No.63 McDonald held firm for a 6-4, 6-1 win.

“It’s been amazing,” said McDonald of his first Davis Cup experience so far. “I’d say it’s really nice playing a team event. It’s not something you get to do a lot throughout the year… I’m very excited to be on the Davis Cup team.”

World No.19 Tommy Paul then faced No.480-ranked Khumoyun Sultanov in the second singles match.

After taking the first set 6-1, Paul faced a renewed onslaught from the Uzbek, who leapt to an early 4-0 lead before being reeled back in. The pair then went toe to toe before Paul edged the tie-break for a final score of 6-1, 7-6(6).

“In the second set he picked up his level a tonne,” Paul said afterwards. “I felt like I wasn’t prepared for it. He got a pretty good lead there in the second.

“I think the team helped me out and the energy I brought there in the second was a lot better, just pumping myself up and looking a bit more up for the challenge,” he added.

The 2-0 scoreline leaves Uzbekistan’s doubles pairing of Fomin and Sanjar Fayziev with an uphill battle when they meet Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram.

Play in Tashkent resumes on Saturday at 12:00 local time (07:00 hrs GMT).

This story features contributions from DavisCup.com

Netflix’s Break Point chronicled the clay-court exploits of Casper Ruud during the 2022 season, culminating in his meeting with Rafael Nadal in the Roland Garros final. Court Philippe Chatrier was a fitting venue for the Norwegian’s first major final, played on a surface on which he has won eight of his nine ATP Tour titles.

Ruud claimed his first tour-level trophy in Buenos Aires in 2020, then broke into the Top 10 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings behind five 2021 titles, including four on clay. In 2022, he rose to a career high of World No. 2 with a big helping of hard-court success. While he won three more titles on the dirt last season, Ruud also reached marquee finals at Miami, the US Open and the Nitto ATP Finals to flash his hard-court credentials at the highest level.

View Ruud’s Break Point Player Profile

Speaking with the ATP Tour in late 2021 — a year in which he won three straight clay titles in July — Ruud discussed his confidence level on clay and hard courts.

“I don’t have a lot of doubts in my hard-court skills, but definitely it’s not as good as maybe my clay-court game,” he said. “But it’s something I’m working on of course.”

Fortunately for the Norwegian, he had two elite examples of players who were able to translate early clay success to other surfaces: Nadal and Dominic Thiem.

“Nadal is the perfect example and I think also Thiem a little bit,” he said. “I think the general media has considered both Nadal and Thiem big-time clay-court specialists, and Nadal has won even two times in Wimbledon. It just goes to show that it’s possible for the heavy topspin players to play well on the surface.

“[Nadal] is a type of player that I looked up to for many years and that I will try to learn from when it comes to this transition from clay court to hard court.”

Ruud studied well and emulated the success of both Nadal and Thiem with his 2022 campaign. The next step for the Norwegian is to match the pair by becoming a champion at the ATP Masters 1000 and Grand Slam level.

If you’re looking for players who can add to the next generation of top-level American tennis talent, chances are you can find them competing at this week’s Cleveland Challenger.

The indoor hard court event has been a stepping stone for Americans such as Sebastian Korda, Jenson Brooksby (‘21 Cleveland finalist), J.J. Wolf, Brandon Nakashima, Maxime Cressy (‘19 Cleveland champion) and Marcos Giron. All six of those men are currently Top-60 players.

The Cleveland Open has also earned visits from Miomir Kecmanovic, Yoshihito Nishioka, and 2022 Next Gen ATP Finals participant Dominic Stricker, who triumphed at last year’s edition.

“We’ve had an exceptional alumni base that we’ve built in only four years,” tournament director Alex Guthrie said. “We had 17 players in the main draw of the Australian Open [that have been to the Cleveland Challenger in years prior]. It’s really cool that the community of Cleveland can get behind this event because it’s been a pipeline to get players on the ATP Tour and become Top 50 or even higher. It’s cool to see the transition, they come through Cleveland and soon enough they are cracking on the ATP Tour as a regular customer.”

This week, the Challenger 75 event held at the Cleveland Racquet Club is hosting American youngsters such as Zachary Svajda and Alex Michelsen, who upset fourth seed Jack Sock in the opening round. Svajda, 20, won his maiden Challenger title this past year in Tiburon. Several former college standouts like Brandon Holt and Aleksandar Kovacevic are also in action in Ohio as Top-8 seeds.

The Cleveland Challenger is the latest example of the game’s future stars competing in an intimate setting before rising to the biggest stages in the sport.

“The importance of the ATP Challenger Tour is being a breeding ground for future success,” Guthrie said. “All these players have either been to the top levels of the game or they’re going to be there. This is an important moment in their tennis careers to get matches in and build confidence.”

As players seek to develop their skills and gain valuable experience while collecting prize money and ranking points on the Challenger Tour, now is the time that tennis fans tune in to watch the stars of tomorrow take flight.

Netflix’s Break Point showcased the biggest moment of Taylor Fritz’s ATP Tour career, when the American won the 2022 BNP Paribas Open title in his native Southern California. By claiming the Indian Wells crown, Fritz followed in the footsteps of his idol, Pete Sampras, who won the ATP Masters 1000 event twice.

The victory also made Fritz the No. 1 American in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings — an honour he still holds today, and one that Sampras held for much of his legendary career.

View Fritz’s Break Point Player Profile

Long before he was chasing the biggest titles in the game, Fritz was just cutting his teeth at the professional level and hoping for an opportunity to meet the man who spent 286 weeks as World No. 1. In a 2018 interview, Fritz recalled a special birthday surprise from Sampras years earlier at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Monterrey.

“I had just started doing well on the pro Tour so I thought maybe I had a chance of talking to him or maybe he would want to talk to me,” Fritz said, recalling that Sampras was in town for an ATP Champions Tour event.

It looked like he would get his wish, as a practice session was set up for the pair. At the last minute, Fritz was told that Sampras cancelled. But his disappointment quickly turned to joy when his idol walked out onto the court bearing a gift.

“I walk on the court to to warm up for my match, and it was my 18th birthday, and Sampras comes out with… they gave him a cake!” Fritz said with a laugh. “I don’t think anyone filled him in on the part that he was giving me a cake.

“It was just really cool. I went from thinking, ‘Oh, he cancelled the hit,’ it was a regular practice… to now this is my idol, on my 18th birthday, hitting with me, warming me up for the match and then giving me the cake. It was pretty cool.”

That moment in 2015 was a long time coming for Fritz, who still has memories of watching Sampras as a toddler.

“I’ve always looked up to Pete Sampras,” Fritz said. “I’ve tried to copy his serve even. He was always my favourite player growing up and he was the best American player of all time so I always wanted to be like him. He was always an idol for me.

“I love the way he was so calm. I thought it was the coolest thing when he would get up a break in the set and he would just tank the return games because he knew he wasn’t going to get broken. I thought that was so cool, having that confidence that I broke serve and the set’s over.”

Sampras, speaking to ATPTour.com after meeting Fritz, proved prescient in his assessment of his countryman’s potential.

“He’s got a great game,” Sampras said. “He hits the ball big, has a monster forehand. I haven’t seen him play that much, but he’s got a few big weapons. He’s a big kid. I was just talking to him a little bit about what it takes, that it’s hard work and sacrifice. He’s on his way and he’s got the right attitude, willing to learn and listen. He’s got a great future.”

Nearly a decade later, Fritz is leading a fresh charge for American tennis. The 25-year-old is one of three men from the United States in the Top 20 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, and one of 10 in the Top 50.

Last week, Tommy Paul enjoyed the best run of his career at the Australian Open, where he reached his maiden Grand Slam semi-final. The 25-year-old is looking to maintain his momentum this week in the 2023 Davis Cup Qualifiers, where he leads the United States against Uzbekistan.

Paul takes on the host nation’s No. 2 Khumoyun Sultanov in his opening singles match on Friday in Tashkent after his countryman Mackenzie McDonald opens against Uzbekistan’s top player Sergey Fomin. The singles matchups will then be reversed on Saturday afternoon, after the solitary doubles match of the best-of-five-rubbers tie, with the winner qualifying for September’s Davis Cup Finals Group Stage.

Sultanov is ranked No. 480 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and Fomin at No. 366, but despite his higher ranking Paul knows he needs to stay focused in unfamiliar conditions in the Uzbekistani capital. Yet the American admitted he may have at least one source of outside help as he prepares for his maiden tour-level meetings against Sultanov and Fomin.

“When the [Australian Open] started I was texting Reilly [Opelka] a bunch about the players I was playing and he was giving me the scouting reports,” said Paul, who reached his maiden Grand Slam semi-final in Melbourne. “Every morning when I’d wake up for a match, he was sending me a long paragraph about what to do against certain players… maybe I’ll hit him up tomorrow!”

Wawrinka & Zverev Clash In Trier
A Central European derby features a blockbuster opening day in the German city of Trier, where the home team’s former World No. 2 Alexander Zverev meets Switzerland’s three-time Grand Slam champion Stan Wawrinka on Friday evening.

That follows a big-serving opening matchup between Oscar Otte and Marc-Andrea Huesler, with every win likely to be crucial in a meeting between two teams that appear evenly-matched on paper.

In Stockholm, Swedish fans will look for strong opening displays from brothers Mikael Ymer and Elias Ymer as the seven-time champion nation bids to extend its winning streak in home ties to six against Bosnia & Herzegovina. The World No. 60 Mikael faces Mirza Basic on Day 1, while his elder brother Elias, the World No. 120, plays Damir Dzumhur.

France, GB Face Tough Tests On The Road
Another nation with a rich Davis Cup history, 10-time winner France, faces a tricky Qualifier away to Marton Fucsovics-led Hungary. Three-time ATP Tour titlist Ugo Humbert is the man charged with taking on the former World No. 31 Fucsovics. Humbert will look to his teammate Benjamin Bonzi to first settle any French nerves in Friday’s opening rubber against Zsombor Piros.

In the other two Qualifiers set to start Friday, Norway takes on Miomir Kecmanovic-led Serbia while Cameron Norrie and Daniel Evans will hope to handle the high altitude of Cota, a town near Bogota, where Great Britain takes on Colombia.

Fast-rising World No. 40 Jack Draper is another singles option for the 2015 champions, who hold a clear rankings advantage over their opponents but will need to adapt quickly to conditions on the clay favoured by leading home players Nicolas Mejia and Nicolas Barrientos.

Coric, Thiem Set For Saturday Showdown
The draws for the six ties with Saturday starts are to be made Friday, but a Day 1 clash between Borna Coric and Dominic Thiem could light up the tie between Croatia and Austria. The 2005 and 2018 champions Croatia have brought a strong squad together in the city of Rijeka, where World No. 21 Marin Cilic and the doubles pairing of Nikola Mektic/Mate Pavic are also set to feature.

Other notable meetings projected to highlight the weekend’s action include Belgium’s David Goffin against South Korea’s Soonwoo Kwon. Goffin led his nation to the Davis Cup Final in 2015 and 2017, while Kwon lifted his second ATP Tour title in Adelaide three weeks ago. In La Serena, Chile, the host’s former World No. 17 Cristian Garin could face an intriguing clash of styles if he is drawn to play against Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik.

This story features contributions from DavisCup.com