Mardy Fish is out as captain of the US Davis Cup team after the US Tennis Association said on Friday that the two sides “mutually agreed to move in a new direction.”
“Was time for me to focus more on my business ventures at my firm, Disruptive, family and my passions for MMA and golf,” Fish, a former professional player who had been the US captain since 2019, wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “I simply don’t have the time to commit fully.”
The USTA announced the change as part of a news release that began by listing the members of the American roster for a qualifying matchup at Uzbekistan on February 3-4. Those players are doubles specialist Rajeev Ram, Tommy Paul, Jenson Brooksby, Mackenzie McDonald and Austin Krajicek.
Ram was notably left off the squad by Fish for the Davis Cup Finals in November. That was shortly after the 38-year-old Ram reached the No. 1 ranking in men’s doubles for the first time on the heels of winning a second consecutive US Open doubles championship for his third Grand Slam trophy overall.
Fish and Davis Cup coach Bob Bryan were fined $10,000 apiece in November by the International Tennis Integrity Agency for promoting a gambling operator via social media.
Fish and Bryan also were given four-month bans that were provisionally set aside and would be enforced only if there was another breach of rules during a probationary period that ends in March.
The United States reached the Davis Cup quarterfinals in 2022, losing to Italy at that stage. The Americans have won a record 32 titles in the international team competition for men, most recently in 2007.
The USTA said on Friday that an interim captain for the matches against Uzbekistan would be picked “in the near future,” while information about the search for someone to fill the position on a full-time basis will come “at a later date.”
A USTA spokesman referred to Friday’s release and declined to comment further.
In Friday’s email to the AP, Fish called serving as the U.S. Davis Cup captain “a dream of a lifetime” and said it was “a true honor” to succeed Jim Courier in the post and to be the captain for the last Davis Cup match in the careers of twin brothers Bob and Mike Bryan.
Fish won six titles in singles and eight in doubles as a player, earned a silver medal for the United States at the 2004 Athens Olympics in singles and competed in the Davis Cup from 2002-12. He made it to the quarterfinals at three Grand Slam tournaments and reached a career-best ranking of No. 7. He retired from the tennis tour in 2015.
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