- Green and gold record underdog win over America
- Davis Cup skipper Hewitt inspires shock victory
An inspired captaincy, a nail-biting underdog victory for Thanasi Kokkinakis and good old-fashioned Australian doubles have taken Australia to a shock 2-1 win over the USA and into the Davis Cup semi-finals in Spain.
Lleyton Hewitt defeated his American counterpart Bob Bryan in the key captaincy of their quarter-final in Malaga on Thursday, as 28-time winners Australia defeated the 32-time champions in the battle between the two most successful countries in the historic men’s world. A cup of tennis’.
Firstly, Hewitt opted for the bold choice of Kokkinakis, world number 77, to open proceedings against the left-handed Ben Shelton, who is 56 places higher in the rankings, and the Australian outsider came up trump after losing four match points have saved to triumph in an epic decisive match. tiebreak 6-1 4-6 7-6 (16-14).
Then, after Alex de Minaur was blown away 6-4 6-4 by Taylor Fritz in the match against the number 1, it was up to double grand slam winners Jordan Thompson and Matt Ebden to play together in the cup for the first time work and beat Shelton. and Tommy Paul 6-4 6-4 in the deciding rubber.
‘Unbelievable. When we got the break there at four, I could have run all over the bench,” Thompson beamed. “I wore my heart on my sleeve, you know, bleeding green and gold.”
American skipper Bryan had dumped his specialist doubles team, Olympic silver medalists Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek, in an attempt to shake up the Aussies by releasing two of his singles stars – but the decision backfired spectacularly.
Thanasi Kokkinakis is pictured collapsing on the court as he celebrates his thrilling victory over American Ben Shelton after saving four match points in a tiebreak
Australian skipper Lleyton Hewitt (pictured with Kokkinakis after his singles win) took a big risk with his selections – and it turned out to be a genius move
Hewitt (pictured during the victory over the US) picked up an American tactic earlier this week – and made it fail
“We were hoping to surprise the Aussies a bit,” sighed Bryan, to which Hewitt replied: “It didn’t surprise us that much, to be honest… I’d seen them doing drills during the week. ‘
It left Australia one win away from a third straight final after two second-place finishes, but they will need to topple champions Italy or Argentina on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) for another chance to lift the Cup for the first time wait to drag in 21 years on Sunday (Monday AEDT).
‘I don’t know if I’ve ever been this excited in my life. That’s what I wanted for my team,” said Kokkinakis, after finally winning his seventh match point in the marathon 30-point breaker.
“It could have gone either way, but I kept my nerves under control.”
Hewitt felt it had not been a gamble to play Kokkinakis, even though he had played only one lower-level challenger in Sydney and a losing Laver Cup singles in the two months since two major wins at the Davis Cup qualifying matches in Valencia.
The much higher ranked Montreal Masters winner Alexei Popyrin and Thompson were both overlooked, with Hewitt grinning: “He (Kokkinakis) played like the winner of the New South Wales Open Challenger about a month ago!”
“Obviously it’s never easy to make these decisions, but we know that if we can get him to play at the highest level, he’s dangerous for everyone, I don’t care who it is. I believed in him completely.
“We kind of put him on hold until now and let him out today, and he paid us back in full.”
The faith was amply rewarded and Hewitt then stuck a disappointingly flat de Minaur in the second singles for a rematch with world number 4 Fritz, who had only just defeated him at the ATP Finals the previous week.
The key moment came when Bryan revealed his doubles substitution 15 minutes before they were due to take the court.
“We were expecting the other pair, but we knew they have great players who can play doubles, so we were ready,” said Ebden, who like Thompson has won grand slam doubles, but both with a different partner, Purcell, cheering on the track after recent injury problems. ‘What a day!…’