AUSSIES FACE FIGHT
GERMANY’S Davis Cup team is mystified by Australia’s refusal to play in-form Nick Kyrgios yesterday in a doubles match which left the home team one loss from elimination in 2018.
Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt’s decision to play firsttime doubles combination John Peers and Matt Ebden in a 6-4, 6-7 (1-7), 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4 loss to Germans Jan-Lennard Struff and Tim Puetz at Pat Rafter Arena was lapped up by German captain Michael Kohlmann.
Australia, down 1-2 in the tie, needs to win both of today’s two remaining singles matches and both would be contrary to the rankings. A win by Germany would drop a match to the powder-keg argument begun in Australian tennis by Bernard Tomic’s boast that the team cannot win a Davis Cup title without him.
Kyrgios, ranked No. 14, squares off against world No. 5 Alexander Zverev, with 18year-old Australian Alex de Minaur, ranked No. 139, later scheduled to meet world No. 58 Struff in the fifth and final rubber.
“When I heard they weren’t making a change to their team (of Peers and Ebden in the doubles), I had a very good feeling because I thought Nick was playing doubles for sure,’’ Kohlmann said. “Nick played one hour, 30 minutes yester- day and I don’t know if he was sweating because he was serving huge bombs.
“They (Peers and Ebden) haven’t played together and Davis Cup doubles is not only about tennis — it’s about how you connect together and my guys would connect better together.’’
Asked if John Millman’s practice session with Kyrgios yesterday was a pointer to the 108th-ranked Queenslander playing the fifth match as a replacement for the weary de Minaur, Hewitt said: “You can read into it that Alex had a long match yesterday, nearly four hours. Hopefully he pulls up well — we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. That’s all stuff we will talk about after they get treatment.’’
It will be an academic exercise if Kyrgios cannot first take a fourth win from five senior matches against Zverev.
“I’m glad I have Nick on my side. He has played so well for us in the past,’’ Hewitt said.
Kyrgios had played doubles once only in his previous nine Davis Cup ties, losing that match.
“Matt and I practised well all week and that’s not the reason we lost,’’ said Peers, the world’s No. 4 doubles player.
Australia has not won the Davis Cup since 2003 and the form of Kyrgios and the promise of de Minaur does not disguise that depth in singles is needed to win four Cup rounds over nine months.