Shelton, the world No. 21, had earlier come out on the wrong side of 30-point tiebreak against world No. 78 Thanasi Kokkinakis, falling to a 1-6, 6-4, 6-7 (14) defeat. Taylor Fritz, America’s top-ranked singles player and this year’s U.S. Open finalist, beat Alex De Minaur 6-3, 6-4 to force the deciding rubber.

Bryan decided to field Ben Shelton in the first singles, a player who was making his Davis Cup debut and who could struggle to handle the pressure. That's exactly what happened. Shelton was defeated by Thanasi Kokkinakis in the decisive tiebreak and the situation got complicated.

Ahead of the decisive rubber, USA captain Bob Bryan suddenly swapped out two champion doubles players for singles players Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul. And the decision backfired, as they were beaten by doubles specialists Matthew Ebden and Jordan Thompson.