Lleyton Hewitt has heaped reward on his group’s never-give-up angle after Australia escaped the group of loss of life on the United Cup to safe a quarter-final berth.
Alex de Minaur kicked off Monday evening’s tie towards defending champions Team USA with a crushing 6-4 6-2 win over world No.10 Taylor Fritz.
Ajla Tomljanovic’s 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 loss to world No.5 Jessica Pegula levelled proceedings, that means all of it got here all the way down to the blended doubles.
Complicating issues for Australia was the very fact they wanted to win the blended doubles in straight units with a view to high their group, which additionally featured Great Britain.
Gun doubles pairing Matt Ebden and Storm Hunter received the job finished, defeating Pegula and Rajeev Ram 6-3 6-1.
Australia’s hopes of a quarter-final berth appeared shot after dropping to Great Britain 2-1 on Friday.
But their against-the-odds victory towards the US left group captain Hewitt beaming with pleasure.
“They played fantastic, it was great,” Hewitt mentioned.
“I’m very proud. It was backs against the wall after our first match.
“They left all the things on the market. It bodes effectively for Wednesday evening.”
Fritz was a hero of America’s United Cup triumph last summer, recording four wins from his five singles matches, including impressive triumphs over grand slam finalists Alexander Zverev and Matteo Berrettini.
But he was simply no match against de Minaur, who registered 28 winners to 19 in the 89-minute rout.
Fritz threw his racquet across the court in disgust early in the second set after de Minaur pulled off a crazy winner to secure a crucial break.
On another occasion, Fritz rested his head on the net in defeat following yet another sizzling winner from de Minaur.
“Today was a little bit little bit of a brand new yr, new me sort of factor,” said de Minaur, who was defeated in three sets by Cameron Norrie on Friday night.
“I used to be in an awesome head area. I performed the kind of tennis I wished to play, so I’m very proud of that.
“I’ve played Taylor plenty of times. He’s got some explosive firepower, and you have to try to not to let him dictate play.
“I attempted to be aggressive. I used to be in a position to execute. I’m very proud of that.”
De Minaur’s on-court movement throughout the match was superb, and his sliced backhand also proved to be a major weapon.
“I’m simply attempting to indicate on the market that I can do much more issues than simply run facet to facet,” de Minaur mentioned.
“I’ve received a few issues up my pocket. I’ve to attempt to convey them out extra.”
Returning star Tomljanovic was broken early in the women’s singles encounter, but she rebounded strongly and was on the cusp of winning the first set.
Pegula kept her nerve to fend off three set points, and she took her own chances when they presented by converting four of her six break-point chances.
In contrast, Tomljanovic only converted three of 11 break-points.
Despite not getting the win, it was a much better performance from Tomljanovic compared to her 6-2 6-4 loss to Katie Boulter on Friday night.
“I’m not going to lie, Friday actually form of put me down,” Tomljanovic mentioned.
“I actually thought my degree wasn’t there.
“But coming out today and putting up a good fight, and even though I didn’t win, I felt like I had so many chances.”
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Source: www.perthnow.com.au
