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Australia has retained their place in the Davis Cup World Group for 2017 after thrashing Slovakia 3-0 at Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney Olympic Park.
The Aussies stared down the barrel of demotion to the Zonal Group after losing to the United States at Kooyong in March, but the return of Nick Kyrgios (after he missed the tie due to illness) and the weakness of the Slovakian squad meant the hosts started as favourites on their preferred surface of grass.
Kyrgios, who was passed fit to play after a hip injury forced his retirement against Iliya Marchenko at the US Open, kicked off proceedings on the Friday and did not disappoint in his match against Andrej Martin, winning in straight sets.
It was his first tie for the country since last July, when he was defeated by Kazakhstan’s Aleksandr Nedovyesov, prompting then-captain Wally Masur to drop him for the reverse singles.
Australia eventually won that tie 3-2 after coming from two rubbers to love down, thanks to the heroics of Sam Groth and now-captain Lleyton Hewitt.
It was also Kyrgios’ first win in a Davis Cup tie since September 2014.
Bernard Tomic, a first round loser in New York, then put the Aussies 2-0 up after he defeated Jozef Kovalic, also in straight sets.
The Queenslander was pushed to a tiebreak in the opening set and was then pegged back to 4-all in the third after he had won the opening four games of that set without reply.
It was then left to the doubles pairing of John Peers and Sam Groth to clinch the tie on the Saturday, which they did by beating the Slovakian pairing of Martin and Igor Zelenay in four sets.
The pair, who did not face a single break point for the entire match, were taken to a third-set tiebreak during which they had a match point, but the Slovaks forced a fourth set which was also to be decided in a breaker.
Groth and Peers eventually took the match, sealing Australia’s return to the World Group for 2017.
This rendered Sunday’s reverse singles as dead rubbers, and with poor weather having been forecast for the day, it was fair to say that the Aussies wasted little time in getting the job done.
The rain eventually washed out the Sunday schedule and, needless to say, the two dead rubber matches, which were to have been decided using the best-of-three format, were not played.
Sam Groth was to have replaced Nick Kyrgios for the match against Jozef Kovalic.
Spectators who had bought tickets for the Sunday session will be compensated by having their ticket validated for one day’s entry into next year’s Sydney International, also to be played at Ken Rosewall Arena.
Australia will now wait to learn the identity of their first round opponent when the draw for next year’s Davis Cup is conducted in London this week.
The schedule has also been altered with the first round brought forward by a month to the weekend of February 3-5, the week after the 2017 Australian Open.
The quarter-finals will be contested in the weekend of April 7-9, the semi-finals on the weekend of September 15-17 and the final on the weekend of November 24-26.
It is a departure from past years when the first round would be contested in the first weekend of March, and the quarter-finals in the week after Wimbledon.
While Australia remains in the World Group for a fourth consecutive year, the Slovaks will remain in the Zonal Group for at least another twelve months.
As a matter of fact, the 2005 runners-up haven’t been able to break back into the World Group since losing in the first round to Chile in 2006. This was also their third consecutive World Group play-off defeat, having been defeated by Poland 3-2 last year and thrashed 5-0 by the USA in 2014.
Meanwhile, Great Britain’s Davis Cup defence hangs in the balance after falling behind 2-1 in their semi-final against Argentina going into the reverse singles.
In a rematch of the Rio Olympics gold medal match, Juan Martin del Potro avenged his four-set defeat to Andy Murray by defeating the Scot in five sets. It was the first time ever that Murray had contested a match lasting over five hours.
Guido Pella then defeated Kyle Edmund in the second singles rubber before the Murray brothers pegged back a point for the Brits by taking the doubles rubber against the pairing of del Potro and Leonardo Mayer in four sets.
The reverse singles will see Andy Murray face Pella and, if the world number two wins as expected, it’ll then be left to Edmund, who reached the fourth round of the US Open this month, to complete the Brits’ comeback against del Potro.
Croatia leads France 2-1 in the other World Group semi-final.
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