JP PAIRED WITH HEWITT FOR OZ OPEN
HE may have missed out on a crack at the singles, but Townsville professional John-patrick Smith will team up with Australian tennis royalty when he partners Lleyton Hewitt in the Australian Open doubles.
Smith and the dual major winner will play Marcus Daniell and Wesley Koolhof in the first round, the same pairing that ended Smith and compatriot John Millman’s Brisbane International campaign in the semi finals.
Hewitt, 37, came out of retirement in December, 2017 to play in last year’s Australian Open doubles competition, where he advanced to the Round of 16 alongside Sam Groth.
Smith was eliminated in the first round of Australian Open singles qualifying last week by German Matthias Bachinger.
Fellow Townsville junior Lizette Cabrera will team up with Jaimee Fourlis in an allAustralian pairing against Belgian No.10 seeds Irina-camelia Begu and Mihaela Buzarnescu in the first round.
Smith and Cabrera form part of an Australian contingent that is the largest to play at an Australian Open since Hewitt spearheaded a 23strong home challenge in 2000.
Hopes are high that Ashleigh Barty and Alex de Minaur can continue their sizzling summers and make deep runs at the season’s first grand slam, the biggest and richest annual event on the Australian sporting calendar.
Barty has rocketed into joint fourth favourite with bookmakers to end Australia’s 41-year Open title drought after taking down a string of heavyweights, including world No.1 Simona Halep, and going within a tiebreaker of winning the Sydney International.
De Minaur went one better, heroically winning two matches on Saturday to claim his maiden ATP title in front of rapturous hometown fans in Sydney.
The legendary Ken Rosewall was courtside in the arena named in his honour for every one of de Minaur’s matches and is convinced the 19-year-old is ready to shake up the Open draw.
“He’s playing well enough to really be dangerous,” Rosewall said. De Minaur is happy to be sharing the spotlight with his fellow 2018 Newcombe medallist Barty.
“She’s had an unbelievable week. It’s definitely not easy with the calibre of player she had to beat to get to the final and to be so close, but she’s playing some great tennis,” he said.
“She’s really leading the nation. Hopefully she can have a massive Australian Open.’’