Hewitt still hungry for Davis Cup success
FRIDAY marks the 15th anniversary of Australia’s last Davis Cup final triumph and Lleyton Hewitt is vowing his team has the chance to win another – in whatever format the competition is played.
Australian tennis’ greatest modern-day Davis Cup warrior has been a vocal opponent of the radical overhaul of the century-old teams’ event.
For the first time in 119 years, the 2019 Davis Cup will climax with a season-ending 18-team tournament in Madrid.
Runners up last week in this year’s final to Croatia, the French are threatening to boycott the event in protest to the changes implemented by the International Tennis Federation.
Hewitt won’t stoop to such drastic measures and is pledging to stay on as captain as long as Tennis Australia chooses him.
“It’s disappointing, but I’ve spoken to Johnny (Millman) and Alex (de Minaur) and these guys about it and we’ll use it as a tool to play for Australia,” Hewitt said.
“It doesn’t matter what the format.
“We don’t agree with it, we don’t like it, but if we get picked – me as captain and them to play – we’ll do it.
“And we’ll do absolutely everything we can to win it.”
After losing a World Group play-off to Austria in September, Australia will host Bosnia and Herzegovina in a qualifying tie in Adelaide from February 1-2, hoping to make the 2019 finals.
Hewitt has a glut of talent to choose from, with world No.31 de Minaur, Nick Kyrgios (35), Millman (38) and Matt Ebden (46) all finishing the year in the top 50.
Seven more players are in the top 160, including onetime Davis Cup hero Thanasi Kokkinakis, who is again on the comeback trail from injury.