No rift in the ranks, according to Hewitt

“I am working with a few guys and I am excited.

“The disappointing thing is that the Aussie men and women had a great day and it was overshadowed by Bernard Tomic.”

Tomic hasn’t played Davis Cup since 2016, while Kyrgios opted out of Australia’s World Group playoff last September in Austria to save himself for Laver Cup.

The 26-year-old stood by his explosive comments on Tuesday and said received considerable support.

“He’s just doing the wrong thing,” Tomic said of Hewitt.

“He’s playing Davis Cup – I thought he was retired. He’s playing all these matches and stuff like this.

“He used to hate Tennis Australia. It’s weird. And now he loves them. What’s happened here?

“But I guess he’s using them for other things.”

Tennis legend John Newcombe said Hewitt should “take the moral high ground” and not even bother defending himself.

“I don’t think that there is a rift,” Hewitt said.

“There is always communication going on with captain, coach and players and leading into the next tie that will all happen but those boys are going on with big matches today.

“The communication, we’ve spoken before the Australian Open and we will continue to speak after the Australian Open leading into the next Davis Cup tie and then we work out next week our best team moving forward into the Adelaide tie.

“For me, I love being a part and helping the Australian players as much as possible.”

Tennis Australia’s head of performance Wally Masur said the governing body was standing by Hewitt.

“He’s a tremendous worker and he responds to people that are prepared to meet him half way. I was watching a lot of tennis yesterday and there were some good stories so it was disappointing to wake up and read that.”