Lleyton bets on history repeating
Hewitt has reached back to the precocious start of his successful tennis career for Australia in deciding to pitch impressive 18-year-old Alex de Minaur into the Davis Cup deep end at Pat Rafter Arena today.
De Minaur said he wanted to make the most of his “dream” Davis Cup singles debut against Germany’s world No.5 Alexander Zverev.
Hewitt made his Davis Cup debut at 18 in a winning tie over the US in 1999 and next beat Russia’s world No.2 Yevgeny Kafelnikov in Brisbane’s famous “potato field” tie.
“Lleyton told me all about it (the winning tie in Boston in 1999). It’s pretty special to be playing your first tie and having a huge match to play – it’s a dream come true,” said de Minaur, who was chosen despite being the fifth-ranked Australian at No.139.
Hewitt said he liked the mobile de Minaur’s game style against the tall, big-hitting Zverev, choosing him rather than Australian No.4 John Millman, who would have been playing on his home court in Brisbane.
“Alex will make the court as small as possible for Zverev,’’ Hewitt said.
“He’s had a great summer and played some of his best tennis on that court (making the semi-finals of the Brisbane International).
“There’s a lot of pressure on Zverev to get the job done.
“He’s the red-hot favourite and it will be interesting to see how he handles it.”
De Minaur laughed with his teammates about the outcome of the draw.
“I wasn’t expecting any of this (at the start of the summer),” he said.
Australian No.1 Nick Kyrgios will play the second match of the three-day tie against German No.2 Jan-Lenard Struff, ranked No.58.
Matt Ebden and John Peers were named to play in the doubles against Germans Tim Pietz and Peter Gojowczyk.