KYRGIOS NO-SHOW FOR CUP AGAIN
AUSTRALIA will again go into Davis Cup battle next month without Nick Kyrgios.
Alex de Minaur will spearhead Australia, while Thanasi Kokkinakis will be the No.2 singles player and the Matt Ebden-Max Purcell combination will aim to continue its formidable doubles form after winning the Wimbledon title.
Alexei Popyrin and Jason Kubler, ranked No.76 and 118 respectively, round out the sixman squad for the group stage in Hamburg against Germany, France and Belgium from September 13-18.
But Wimbledon finalist and recent Washington title winner Kyrgios will extend his Davis Cup absence to three years.
Kyrgios indicated after his loss in Montreal last week that he would play two more tournaments – at Cincinnati and then the US Open, where he will be seeded and among the title favourites. He will then head home to Canberra.
“I’ve been on the road for nearly three months,” he said.
“I’ve been away from home, away from my mum, away from my dad.
“They’re not very well at the moment, so I don’t really care about ‘no winning streak’.
“As long as I’m not at home, I’m on the road. I want to try to put in good performances, make it worthwhile being here. I don’t care about records and any of that sort of stuff.”
Australia’s top-ranked doubles player, world No.9 John Peers – fresh from making the Montreal Masters final with Brit Dan Evans – is also not in the squad after partnering a series of different countrymen with mixed success in the past few years.
Sixteen countries are competing in four round-robin groups. The top two from each group progress to the Davis Cup knockout stage in Malaga, Spain, from November 22-27.