At the tip of England’s Ashes summer time, Lleyton Hewitt’s Australian group will face the tennis equal once they tackle hosts Great Britain within the group stage of the Davis Cup finals in Manchester.
A couple of miles from Old Trafford in September, the Australians, who’re hoping to go one higher than final 12 months once they have been crushed by Canada within the remaining, have been drawn in a tricky group on the AO Arena alongside GB, France and Switzerland.
The quantity two seeds must end within the high two within the group to progress to the finals again in Malaga the place they only missed out in 2022.
Alex de Minaur, at the moment the world No.18, had an excellent match in Spain, spearheading a group that includes Jordan Thompson (now No.83), Max Purcell (99) and Thanasi Kokkinakis (94) which surpassed expectations as Australia reached the ultimate for the primary time in 19 years.
Jason Kubler (70), Chris O’Connell (86) and Alexei Popyrin (93) look able to battle for locations within the group too, even when there stays no signal that Nick Kyrgios is more likely to finish his exile from the match after preferring to money in at a profitable exhibition occasion in Saudi Arabia as a substitute final 12 months.
Whoever makes the September group will face a tricky problem with Great Britain having world No.12 Cameron Norrie, No.29 Dan Evans, the rising star Jack Draper (No.43) and indomitable veteran Andy Murray (No.52) to select from.
France have energy in depth, with 9 males within the ATP Tour’s top-100, headed by one other previous warhorse Richard Gasquet (No.40), whereas Switzerland, maybe the weakest group within the group, should still doubtlessly have the ability to name on two-time grand slam winner Stan Wawrinka (No.87).
The host venues for the group phases, introduced on the attract Malaga on Wednesday, have been Manchester, Valencia, Bologna and a yet-to-be-decided Croatian metropolis.
Champions Canada, who convincingly beat Hewitt’s males within the remaining thanks largely to the sensible double act of Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov, will face hosts Italy, Sweden and Chile of their Bologna group.
In Valencia, there’s the mouth-watering prospect of Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal teaming up for the hosts, in opposition to Serbia, with Novak Djokovic of their ranks, in addition to the Czech Republic and South Korea,
The Croatian group may also characteristic the Netherlands, the United States and Finland.
The high eight groups will go on to the finals week, once more in Malaga, between November 21 and 26.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
