Australian Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt gambled by breaking up US Open doubles champions Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell but it paid off as his team secured an opening victory over France in a bid to progress back to the finals.
In the absence of top-ranked Alex de Minaur, Thanasi Kokkinakis stepped up to get a crucial singles win over world No.25 Arthur Fils.
But when Alexei Popyrin dropped his rubber to French No.1 Ugo Hubert, it was down to the doubles.
With history on his side, Hewitt then paired up Olympics doubles champion Matt Ebden with Purcell and the pair used all three sets to take down experienced Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 7-5 5-7 6-3.
“When you have these boys going out for a live doubles it gives you a lot of confidence, they have done it the last couple of years for us and they did it again,” Hewitt said.
Kokkinakis, who was a late addition to the Australian team this week, replacing an injured de Minaur, knew he had to step up and opened the tie with a 7-6(7-4) 7-6(7-3) victory against his 20-year-old opponent.
“Obviously, we’ve got a lot of options and great depth at the moment, so I still wasn’t sure if I’d get the call-up,” the 28-year-old said.
“After I saw Alex at the US Open I knew he wasn’t 100 per cent and was struggling, so my focus changed. I was like, ‘I need to be ready here. I need to have a little bit more purpose when I train’.
“I’m happy that Lleyton trusted me to go in there and do the job.
“I just tried to hang in there and I think I played steady on the big moments. There wasn’t much in it.”
Popyrin was unable to deliver after taking the top-ranked spot for Australia, losing to Humbert 6-3 6-2.
“He played some inspired tennis and didn’t let me into the match,” a disappointed Popyrin said.
“I felt like he was reading every single serve. Whether I slowed it down or sped it up, he was on it. When you play someone like that, who is painting the lines and reading your weapons, it’s quite difficult.”
It meant that for the third year in a row, a deciding doubles rubber was needed to determine the winner of these two teams in a group-stage meeting at the Davis Cup finals.
And for the third consecutive year, it was Ebden and Purcell who teamed up to secure an Australian victory.
The victory was crucial with ties against Spain and the Czech Republic to come.
Australia needs to finish among the top-two nations in Group B this week to advance to the knockout stage of the finals in November.
Content Source: www.perthnow.com.au