Nick Kyrgios named by Australia for Davis Cup finals

Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt says he has been willing to overlook Nick Kyrgios’s recent outbursts on the ATP Tour to select the talented but wayward star in his team for the revamped Davis Cup finals. Kyrgios is currently serving six months probation on the ATP tour after a meltdown at the Cincinnati tournament in August and calling the ATP “pretty corrupt” during this year’s US Open. 

The suspended sentence applies only to the ATP Tour and not the Davis Cup and Hewitt is confident the 24-year-old Kyrgios will be on his best behaviour at the 18-team world finals in Madrid from Nov. 18 to 24. Hewitt said Kyrgios’s latest ban had not affected his decision to select the player in a strong Australian team, drawn in a group with Belgium and Colombia.

The Australia team also includes world No. 28 Alex de Minaur, Jordan Thompson, John Millman and doubles specialist John Peers. “I have been watching that closely,” Hewitt said of Kyrgios. “I feel like on the Davis Cup court he’s done absolutely everything I’ve needed in the past; he hasn’t put a foot wrong. 

“There’s a lot of things he does in a team environment that I actually think we will see the best of him.” Hewitt, a two-time Davis Cup winner with Australia, said Kyrgios had withdrawn from recent tournaments with a shoulder injury. “After the Laver Cup he had a shoulder (or) collarbone injury which he’s pretty much over now but he had to take a few weeks out as he felt like if he kept playing that was going to jeopardize his chances of possibly playing Davis Cup,” Hewitt said. 

“He comes in a little bit underdone but I’m fortunate he’s a guy who can light it up when he needs to and I think he’s a guy that this format will suit.”