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Australia’s Davis Cup team have produced a bravura display to whitewash Switzerland in a must-win tie and roar into the finals of the men’s “World Cup of tennis”.
Lleyton Hewitt’s team knew they would guarantee their tickets to the eight-team knock-out finals if they could beat the Swiss 3-0 in Saturday’s final group stage tie in Manchester – and Thanasi Kokkinakis, Alex de Minaur and the doubles pairing of Max Purcell and Matt Ebden duly obliged with scintillating performances.
It mean the Australians, who finished runners-up last year, will be able to return to Malaga in November with their eyes set on going one better than last year by lifting the title for the first time in 20 years, in fact, since Hewitt led them to victory as a player.
“Who knows?” shrugged Hewitt on court at the AO Arena after being asked about their chances.
“We gave ourselves a great opportunity last year and the boys got a taste for it. We want to try and push a little bit harder and see if we can climb that mountain, and I feel like I’ve got the boys that are able to do that.”
Hewitt’s key decision to keep faith in Kokkinakis paid off handsomely as the Adelaide powerhouse, who’d suffered three straight Davis Cup singles defeats, defeated Dominic Stricker 6-3 7-5 in the opening rubber, which has proved a troublesome launch pad for the captain.
Then de Minaur, the Australian No.1, continued his proud record in the green and gold, outplaying Marc-Andrea Huesler, who’d been preferred to veteran three-time grand slam winner Stan Wawrinka, 6-4 6-3, to seal Australia’s second victory of the week following their 2-1 win over France.
Then there was a sense of inevitability about the reunited “M and M” pairing of Ebden and Purcell winning the third straight rubber of their undefeated week, as they outclassed Stricker and Huesler 6-2 6-4.
It had been a bold call first-up by Hewitt as Kokkinakis is lower-ranked than two of his teammates, Purcell and Jordan Thompson, and had admitted to suffering from nerves earlier in the week when he lost to British newcomer Jack Draper after serving for the match.
“Relief, honestly, after the other day, just pure relief,” sighed Kokkinakis after this key victory.
Australian doubles pair Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell have been in formidable form in the Davis Cup finals group stage matches, helping book their country a place in November’s final.Credit: Getty
“I’m not going to lie, I was fighting some demons there towards the end,” he added, after Stricker belatedly forged his way back into a contest that Kokkinakis had largely dominated from the start with his excellent serving, including 16 aces, and 21 winning forehands.
“If you lose, you feel like you’ve let everyone down, so it’s tough, I’m not going to lie.”
But Hewitt reckoned his faith in Kokkinakis never wavered.
“Not for a second did I doubt he was gonna go out there and do the job for us today. I had full belief that Thanasi was going to get it done.”
De Minaur, who’s risen to No.12 on the ATP computer, suffered a rude shock when broken in the opening game by world No.101 Huesler. But once he wrested control by breaking back in the sixth game, he looked in a different class, racing to his ninth Davis Cup singles win in his past 11 rubbers in just 73 minutes.
Ebden and Purcell have gone their separate ways this season as Purcell has concentrated more on his flourishing singles career, but they’ve looked like world-beaters all week, just as they were when winning Wimbledon in 2022.
Purcell, in particular, was absolutely flying against the Swiss with a quite dazzling performance.
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