Thanasi Kokkinakis recorded the most important win of his Davis Cup profession to assist Australia report a 2-1 victory towards France in Spain.
Valencia, Spain, 11 September 2024 | Leigh Rogers#DavisCup | @TKokkinakis pic.twitter.com/6Y321aPaEb
— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) September 10, 2024
Kokkinakis was a late addition to the Australian crew this week, changing an injured Alex de Minaur.
“Clearly we’ve obtained lots of choices and nice depth in the mean time, so I nonetheless wasn’t positive if I’d get the call-up,” the 28-year-old stated. “I’m joyful that Lleyton trusted me to go in there and do the job.”
Kokkinakis revealed he was impressed to supply his greatest tennis for world No.11 De Minaur, who has been the crew’s chief lately.
“We needed to attempt put up a few wins for him,” Kokkinakis stated. “He’s injured and might’t play, however continues to be right here supporting. It’s good to have him right here, even when it’s simply on the sidelines.”
France’s No.1 Ugo Humbert did his greatest to spoil Australia’s possibilities, powering to a 6-3 6-2 victory towards Alexei Popyrin to stage the tie at one apiece.
Stepping up into the Australian No.1 place for the primary time in his profession, world No.24 Popyrin was overpowered by his French opponent.
“He performed some impressed tennis and didn’t let me into the match,” a upset Popyrin stated. “I felt like he was studying each single serve. Whether or not I slowed it down or sped it up, he was on it. Once you play somebody like that, who’s portray the traces and studying your weapons, it’s fairly troublesome.”
World No.18 Humbert struck 16 winners to Popyrin’s 5 throughout their 71-minute encounter.
It meant that for the third 12 months in a row, a deciding doubles rubber was wanted to find out the winner of those two groups in a group-stage assembly on the Davis Cup Finals.
And for the third consecutive 12 months, it was Ebden and Purcell who teamed as much as safe an Australian victory.
World No.5 Ebden and world No.8 Purcell dealt with the strain with aplomb to triumph 7-5 5-7 6-3 towards skilled Frenchmen Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
There have been some nervous moments when the French mixture saved a match level after which reeled off three consecutive video games to safe the second set, nevertheless Ebden and Purcell fought again to shut out victory in two hours and quarter-hour.
“We had been unfortunate to not get the second [set], however we knew we simply needed to reset and play one other good set,” Ebden stated.
This improves 36-year-old Ebden and 26-year-old Purcell’s Davis Cup crew report to seven wins from their eight matches collectively.
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The Australian crew wants to complete among the many top-two nations in Group B this week to advance to the knockout stage of the finals in November.
| 2024 Davis Cup Finals Group B standings |
|||
| Nation | Ties gained | Ties misplaced | Matches W-L |
| Australia | 1 | 0 | 2-1 |
| France | 0 | 1 | 1-2 |
| Czech Republic | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
| Spain | 0 | 0 | 0-0 |
Australia performs the Czech Republic in its subsequent round-robin tie (from 12am AEST Friday 13 September).
2024 Davis Cup Finals, group stage
AUSTRALIA d FRANCE 2-1
Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS) d Arthur Fils (FRA) 7-6(4) 7-6(3)
Ugo Humbert (FRA) d Alexei Popyrin (AUS) 6-3 6-2
Matt Ebden/Max Purcell (AUS) d Pierre-Hugues Herbert/Edouard Roger-Vasselin (FRA) 7-5 5-7 6-3
> READ: Australian tennis returns to glory years with 45-year first
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