Davis Cup captain Wally Masur and director of performance Pat Rafter bit the bullet yesterday by dropping Nick Kyrgios and Thanes Kokkinakis from the reverse singles to set up a stunning 3-2 win over Kazakhstan at Darwin.
Down 0-2 after the opening singles, Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Groth won the doubles to keep the tie alive, when Masur and Rafter struck.
In came 27-year-old Groth to replace Kyrgios, and 34-year-old Hewitt – in the twilight of his stellar career – to replace Kokkinakis.
Against all odds, Groth beat Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3 7-6 4-6 7-6 before lion-hearted Lleyton cruised home 7-6 6-2 6-3 over Aleksandr Nedovyesov.
It was the first time since 1939 that Australia had come from 2-0 down to win a Davis Cup tie, and that happened to be the Cup final on the Merion Cricket Club grass at Haverford in Pennsylvania.
Adrian Quist outlasted Bobby Riggs in five on the final day, before John Bromwich straight-setted Frank Parker.
That was the first of 22 Davis Cup final victories for Harry Hopman to 1967, by far the most successful captain in Cup history.
But he had a long line of world-class players over the period: Frank Sedgman, Ken McGregor, Ken Rosewall, Lew Hoad, Rod Laver, Neale Fraser, John Newcombe, Fred Stolle, Tony Roche, Roy Emerson, Ashley Cooper, Rex Hartwig, Mervyn Rose, and Mal Anderson.
Masur and Rafter haven’t got anywhere near that luxury, but they’ve done damn well with what they have got.
Next up for Australia is Great Britain in the semis, in the week after the US Open in September.
So what will Masur and Rafter do if Bernard Tomic, Kyrgios and Kokkinakis are available?
There will be many Australian tennis fans who will willingly dump the younger trio to stick with Hewitt and Groth for both the singles and doubles rubbers.
Great Britain will have a fired up Andy Murray heading their campaign, who has lost only two of his 23 Davis Cup singles, and never on grass.
With the semi likely to be at Queens, where Great Britain beat France in the quarters, there will be three other matches to be decided to reach the final.
James Ward, ranked 89 in the world, will probably be the second singles player, with Jamie Murray, Andy’s year older brother, likely to be the doubles pairing.
And all three will be far easier to lock away than having to beat world number three Andy Murray.
Australia hasn’t been in the world group semis since 2006, Great Britain since 1981.
There’s a lot be be said in sticking with at least Hewitt for one singles semi berth.
He’s the length of the straight ahead of any other Australian in Davis Cup history.
Since his debut in 1999, Hewitt’s played the most ties (39), the most years (17), the most Davis Cup wins with 58 and 18 losses, and the most singles wins with 42 and 14 losses.
As he proved yet again yesterday, Lleyton Hewitt is the man for the moment.
If you were fighting for your life in the trenches, you’d want Hewitt right there beside you.
And that should be the case at Queens come September.
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