World No.12 Alex de Minaur will spearhead Australia’s Davis Cup finals cost as Lleyton Hewitt’s males bid to go one higher than final 12 months’s runner-up displaying.
Hewitt on Tuesday introduced his crew for the round-of-16 stage, with Jordan Thompson, Max Purcell, Thanasi Kokkinakis and doubles star Matt Ebden to affix de Minaur in Manchester, England, from September 12-17.
Australia have been drawn in Group B alongside Great Britain, France and Switzerland and might want to end within the high two within the pool on the AO Arena to advance to the quarter-finals in Malaga, Spain, from November 21-26.
With Australia boasting eight gamers within the males’s high 100 even with out the injured Nick Kyrgios’s rankings freefall, Hewitt mentioned deciding on the crew for Manchester was significantly troublesome.
“But that’s a position that myself, (coaches Tony) Roche and ‘Crabby’ (Jaymon Crabb) enjoy being in,” the skipper mentioned.
“We prefer to have it that way over having limited players to choose from.”
With such depth, Hewitt and firm may discover no room for Australian No.2 Aleksandar Vukic, the world No.48, the 58th-ranked Alexei Popyrin or in-form Chris O’Connell and Jason Kubler.
But De Minaur’s choice was a no brainer after the 24-year-old reached his fourth closing of the season, and maiden ATP Masters 1000 title decider, on Sunday in Toronto.
Despite dropping to Italy’s Jannik Sinner in that match, De Minaur will arrive in New York for the 12 months’s closing grand slam, the US Open, stuffed with confidence and with a career-high rating following two finals in as many weeks.
“Alex de Minaur has played some of his best tennis in Davis Cup, so we’re very fortunate to have him spearheading us again,” Hewitt mentioned.
“He’s come off a fantastic run in Toronto.
“Jordan Thompson performed some actually good tennis in Washington solely a few weeks in the past on the onerous courts. But additionally he performed one in every of his finest matches (towards) Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon.
“Max Purcell, he’s another player who can play singles or doubles. He’s had some big wins in singles this year and got his ranking into a position where he can play all the big tournaments.
“We all know what a top quality doubles participant he’s as nicely.
“Thanasi Kokkinakis, another fantastic ball striker who is capable of playing a lot better tennis than where his ranking’s at. He has the fire power to put a lot of players under pressure.
“And Matt Ebden has performed a whole lot of huge matches for us.”
Australia were runners-up to Canada last year in their best result since lifting the trophy in 2003 with Hewitt, Mark Philippoussis, Todd Woodbridge and Wayne Arthurs.
“We’re in a extremely robust group in Manchester,” Hewitt mentioned.
“They’re all high quality groups and we’ll should be on our sport in each single match and each rubber towards all three nations.”
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
