Alex de Minaur appears to be losing his fight to be fit to lead Australia’s Davis Cup quest after Lleyton Hewitt named a squad for November’s knock-out conclusion without the national No.1.
With eight weeks to go until the ‘final 8’ it is not inconceivable that de Minaur could make it – changes in personnel are permitted for some time yet, but being left out of the squad released in Europe on Monday suggests he will not.
Alexei Popyrin, Novak Djokovic’s US Open nemesis, leads the same five-man party who battled their way through the group stage earlier this month, but now face a daunting quarter-final against the United States.
Should Hewitt’s men come past that obstacle holders Italy, led by world No.1 Jannik Sinner, are in line to bar their path to a third successive final.
Jordan Thompson, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Max Purcell and Matthew Ebden make up Australia’s quintet for the Malaga climax, with the team desperate to end a drought that now dates back more than two decades to 2003, when current team captain Hewitt was playing.
It is a strong unit, with Popyrin and Thompson both ranked in the top 30 while Purcell and Ebden are grand slam doubles winners respectively ranked fifth and eighth in the world. But it would be stronger with world singles No.11 de Minaur.
Speaking after Australia qualified for the final 8 last week Hewitt said of de Minaur, “he’s going to do everything to get back as quickly as possible,” adding the pair were still working through a recovery schedule.
But it now looks as if de Minaur’s focus has been forced to shift to getting himself in the best possible shape for the Australian Open in Melbourne in January.
The Sydneysider has only played one tournament since being force to withdraw from the Wimbledon quarter-finals with a hip injury in July – and that was the US Open. In New York he battled his way into the last eight again, but was clearly struggling with the injury and lost to Briton Jack Draper.
De Minaur has now reached the last eight in all the slams – except Melbourne, and will be keen to be fully fit for his home major.
Bob Bryan’s US quintet features three top 20 singles players: Taylor Fritz (7), Tommy Paul (13) and Ben Shelton (17) plus two top-30 doubles players Rajeev Ram (10) and Austin Krajicek (28).
The attention of the wider world may be on the other half of the draw as Spain have named both Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal, raising the prospect they may reprise their Paris Olympics ‘Nadalcaraz’ partnership, though captain David Ferrer also has world doubles No.1 Marcel Granollers in his selection.
World No.2 Alexander Zverev has not been named in Germany’s squad, though that contains only four players at present.
AUSTRALIAN SQUAD (for Davis Cup Finals’ final 8′, Malaga, Spain, November 19-24): Alexei Popyrin, Jordan Thompson, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Max Purcell, Matthew Ebden. Captain: Lleyton Hewitt.
Quarter-finals: Australia v United States, Italy v Argentina, Spain v Netherlands, Canada v Germany.
