Australia will have to wait at least another twelve months for another shot at Davis Cup glory after they blew a 2-1 lead to go down to Belgium in the Davis Cup semi-finals on Monday morning (AEST).
Entering Sunday night’s reverse singles, Australia needed only to win any one of the two rubbers to advance to their first Davis Cup final since 2003.
The two singles rubbers on Friday were split with debutant John Millman going down fighting to David Goffin in four sets, while Nick Kyrgios came from two sets to one down to defeat Steve Darcis.
Australia also dominated the doubles, with the pairing of Jordan Thompson and John Peers defeating Ruben Bemelmans and Arthur De Greef in straight sets in an hour and a half on Sunday morning (AEST).
This left Lleyton Hewitt’s men on the brink of reaching the final for the first time since 2003, when that year’s Wimbledon finalist, Mark Philippoussis, defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero in the fourth rubber to give the country their 28th title.
And while Kyrgios started impressively against Goffin in the first of the two reverse singles rubbers, not facing a single break point (but wasting seven of his own) in the opening set which he won in a tiebreak, a break to the Belgian to start the second would set the tone for the remainder of the match.
It wound up being enough for Goffin, a quarter-finalist at the Australian Open earlier this year, to take it 6-4 and level the match at one-set all.
((AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
From there, the match appeared evenly poised, but in what was their first meeting on clay, the 26-year-old then took control from that point to eventually win in four sets and force a fifth and deciding rubber.
It then all came down to Jordan Thompson to see if he could stand up and send Australia through to the Davis Cup final, after he received a late call-up from captain Lleyton Hewitt at the expense of John Millman.
Things got off to a disastrous start as the Sydneysider was broken in the very first game of the match by world number 77 Steve Darcis; from there, Thompson never stood a chance as he eventually went down in straight sets.
Again, Darcis proved to be the nemesis, after his fifth-rubber victory over Carsten Ball in Cairns in 2010 kept us out of the 16-team World Group until 2013.
The Belgians will now travel to France for November’s Davis Cup final after Jo-Wilfried Tsonga marshaled their 3-1 win over a Serbia side weakened by the absence of the injured Novak Djokovic.
The former Australian Open finalist won both of his singles rubbers, the latter in four sets over Dusan Lajovic, to send his side through to the final for the first time since 2014.
In what is a repeat of the 1904 final (at the time known as the International Lawn Tennis Challenge), the French will be shooting for their first title since 2001, while the Belgians will be hoping it’s third time lucky, having also lost the 2015 final to Great Britain at home.
As for Australia, well, it’s back to the drawing board following their second Davis Cup semi-final defeat in three years.
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Roar Guru
Who knows. From what I heard he was axed on the eve of the first of the ties because of his lack of match play (he played just one match in the entirety of 2016 - at the Rio Olympics) in recent years.
Matt
Guest
Would Kokkinakis have been a better option?
matth
Guest
Any thoughts in hindsight on whether we should have stuck with Millman for the reverse singles? I wonder whether it was a spur of the moment thing or whether it was pre-planned to keep Thompson more fresh for the game against Darcis.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Real shame, but it was such a good weekend of tennis. Every singles match was such high quality. They will learn from that will the Aussies. Bring on 2018.