ALMATY – After a brilliant victory over Italy, Kazakhstan’s Davis Cup team is readying for its fourth Davis Cup quarterfinals appearance in five years. They will face Australia July 17-19 in Darwin, Australia. Other pairs in the quarterfinal match ups include Great Britain and France, Argentina and Serbia, as well as Belgium and Canada.
Photo credit: Tengrinews
Darwin lies in the far north of Australia, close to the equator. Here in the Marrara Sporting Complex, a temporary tennis stadium with a grass court has been created. The climate, forecasted to be about + 28°C during the matches, and the surface of the court will be well suited for the host country.
The Kazakh and Australian team captains, in accordance with the regulations, choose their team players 10 days before the start of the match.
The Kazakhstan team will include:
• Mikhail Kukushkin (ATP Individual Ranking 63 / ATP Pairs Ranking 349);
• Alexander Nedovesov (ATP Individual Ranking 115 / ATP Pairs Ranking 146);
• Andrey Golubev (ATP Individual Ranking 155 / ATP Pairs Ranking 131);
• Dmitry Popko (ATP Individual Ranking 370 / ATP Pairs Ranking 595).
The Australian team, captained by 52-year-old Wally Masur, will consist of:
• Nick Kyrgios (ATP Individual Ranking 41 / ATP Pairs Ranking 198);
• Samuel Groth (ATP Individual Ranking 69 / ATP Pairs Ranking 59);
• Thanasi Kokkinakis (ATP Individual Ranking 71 / ATP Pairs Ranking 175);
• Lleyton Hewitt (ATP Individual Ranking 279 / ATP Pairs Ranking 208).
Hewitt is a former world number one and three-time winner of Grand Slam tournaments with experience with Davis Cup wins. In 1999 and 2003, Hewitt along with Mark Philippoussis, Wayne Arthurs and the world’s best pair of their time – Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodford achieved great Davis Cup success.
It is thought that the Australians will pair Hewitt and Groth in doubles matches. Groth is familiar to Kazakh fans for pairing with Andrei Golubev to reach the 2014 French Open doubles semifinals.
On the singles side, Australia team members Kyrgios and Kokkinakis are expected to be Cup standouts as both are young and have experienced Davis Cup success. One year ago in Cottesloe, Nick defeated in three sets Uzbekistan’s team leader Denis Istomin, and Kokkinakis in March in Ostrava (Czech Republic) bounced back from two sets to love against Lukáš Rosol, bringing his team its first point.
The history of matches between the players of the two squads is brief. At the 2009 French Open, Hewitt easily bested Golubev 6:4, 6:3, 6:1. In 2014 at the Indian Wells Masters, Kukushkin defeated Groth 6:4, 2:6, 7:6 (7:4), and earlier this year Kukushkin lost to Kyrios on clay in Nice – 6:7 (5:7), 2:6.
The article first appeared in lyakhov.kz. Translated and placed with permission.
