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For the second time in three years, Australia will fight to avoid relegation to the second tier of the Davis Cup in six months’ time. Lleyton Hewitt’s first tie as captain resulted in a 3-1 loss to the United States.
Reigning John Newcombe Medallist Sam Groth kicked off proceedings on Friday morning against America’s top-ranked man John Isner, and despite his best efforts, proved to be no match for the world number eleven, losing in straight sets.
Groth was left to rue his failure to convert three break points on Isner’s serve early in the opening set, which went to a tiebreak which the American dominated. Isner subsequently ran away with the match, taking the second and third sets by 6-2 to put the United States ahead 1-0.
It was then left to Bernard Tomic to level the tie for Australia. He came up against Jack Sock, an opponent he had never beaten in three previous attempts, but that poor record went out the window as he continued his phenomenal record in Davis Cup, winning in four sets to leave the tie evenly poised at 1-all.
Following Groth’s lacklustre performance on Friday, and just six weeks after playing his last professional tennis match in either singles or doubles, Hewitt came out of retirement (albeit briefly) to team up with John Peers for the all-important doubles rubber against the Bryan brothers on Saturday.
The Bryans looked set for a straight-forward victory when they took the opening two sets, only for Hewitt and Peers to storm back, taking the next two sets to level the match at two-sets all.
Throughout his career, the Australian two-time Grand Slam champion established a reputation for contesting, and winning the majority of, five-set matches, earning him the nickname “the king of five-set tennis”.
Among his five-set victims included Andy Roddick (2001 US Open), Roger Federer (2003 Davis Cup), Rafael Nadal (2005 Australian Open), Marcos Baghdatis (2008 Australian Open), and most recently, Juan Martin del Potro (2013 US Open).
Most notably, he came from two sets to love down to defeat Federer in the semi-finals of the 2003 Davis Cup, a result which ultimately catapulted Australia into their most recent final, which they later won against Spain on grass in Melbourne.
But any chance of the Australians taking a 2-1 lead into the final day evaporated as the more-experienced Bryans took the deciding set by the same scoreline they did to take the first two, 6-3.
There was talk that Hewitt could replace Sam Groth for the fifth and final rubber against Jack Sock if the tie remained alive to that point. Ultimately, it didn’t, with Bernard Tomic suffering just his fourth Davis Cup singles defeat when he lost to John Isner in four sets in the first and only reverse singles match on Sunday.
Having dropped the first two sets but rallying to win the third, Tomic threatened to take the match into a fifth and final set when he went up a break in the fourth set tiebreak, only for a crucial error to let Isner off the hook.
From there Isner served out the match, and the tie, to give the United States a 3-1 victory. The final rubber between Groth and Sock was thus not played.
There was a bitter aftermath to the tie, where Tomic accused Nick Kyrgios of faking illness to avoid the Davis Cup tie. The Canberran had been struck down by a virus and a back injury he suffered in Dubai just over a week ago.
Twelve months ago, Kyrgios also skipped the tie against the Czech Republic, who were missing their top-ranked male in Tomas Berdych, due to injury before recovering to play at Indian Wells in California the following week.
His only tie since then was the quarter-final against Kazakhstan last July in which his commitment to the Davis Cup was questioned after he suffered a poor defeat to Aleksandr Nedovyesov, leading to him being dropped for the reverse singles.
The Australians eventually won with Sam Groth and Lleyton Hewitt marshalling their first comeback from two rubbers down since 1939. Their efforts helped them to reach the semi-finals, where they then lost to eventual champions Great Britain.
Back on topic now, and Australia will now fight to avoid relegation to the second-tier of the Davis Cup when they compete in the play-offs in September, which will be held in the week following the US Open, while the United States will progress to the quarter-finals where either Belgium or Croatia will await.
Joining the United States in the quarter-finals will be France and Italy, while ties involving Great Britain, Serbia and the Czech Republic, among others, hang in the balance entering the final day.
The regular tennis tour then resumes this week with the pair of joint ATP-WTA tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami. Both are considered to be two of the biggest non-Grand Slam events on the tennis calendar.
Following that, Australia and the United States will be at it again in April, this time in the Fed Cup, this time for a place in the World Group, and again in Australia (a venue for this tie is yet to be determined at the time of writing).
Former US Open champion Samantha Stosur will be expected to lead the Australians against the Williams sisters-led United States, who will also be expected to field Sloane Stephens, who has won two titles this year.
It means that a blockbuster rubber between Stosur and world number one Serena Williams remains a possibility. Prior to Angelique Kerber at this year’s Australian Open, Stosur was the last woman to defeat Williams in a Grand Slam final, at the 2011 US Open. The Australian hasn’t beaten the American since.
So, in Lleyton Hewitt’s first year as Davis Cup captain, can Australia avoid demotion to the second tier, or will they fight their way back into the World Group for 2017? We will all wait to see shortly after the US Open in September.
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