Kokkinakis wins Thriller in Match One
World no.77 Thanasi Kokkinakis seems to have massively gained the trust of his skipper as he has continuously been a featured player throughout the tournament despite being far from the highest ranked man on the squad.
His matchup was the big serving youngster Ben Shelton. The two played a phenomenal match with match points on either side before Kokkinakis ultimately gutted out the win.
In the opening set Kokkinakis made quick work of the young American, breaking him three times en route to a big 6-1 win.
Set two was much different from the onset as the previously dominant Kokkinakis was broken in the opening game. Shelton found his big serve in the set and with eight aces, held on to win it 6-4.
The third and deciding set was a thriller. After neither men were broken despite each having breakpoint opportunities, the match went into a winner takes all tiebreaker.
The two went back-and-forth with both having match point opportunities but neither being able to capitalize. Kokkinakis had the first three chances but couldn’t close. They then went back and forth with four opportunities each before finally, up 15-14, Kokkinakis found the elusive final point to win the match.
Fritz Continues Hot Form to Beat de Minaur
The high ranked matchup between Fritz and de Minaur lacked the same intensity as the one before it. The men were trending in different directions as Fritz finished runner-up at the ATP Finals while de Minaur lost all three of his matches and re-aggravated his hip injury.
Despite this, he was ready to represent his country, but unfortunately didn’t have his A-game.
In just the second game of the match, de Minaur was broken at love by the American. Despite righting the ship and not giving up another break, de Minaur was unable to challenge the Fritz serve for the most part and lost the opening set 6-3.
The second set was a different story. It was de Minaur this time who broke in the second game to take a 2-0 lead. He was unable to consolidate however as Fritz quickly levelled the set.
From that point, Fritz was on the offensive and after coming close in a couple of games, he broke de Minaur to go up 5-4 before closing out the set to win the match 6-3, 6-4.
Ebden and Thompson Come up Clutch
After splitting the singles matches, it all came down to the doubles.
The team of Matthew Ebden and Jordan Thompson were thrown into a bit of a blender mentally when the USA announced late that Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul would be the doubles pairing but the Aussies held their nerve.
Just three games into the opening set they put their opponents on the back foot with a strong returning game to break serve.
They then saved a break point in the very next game to keep their lead, which they held onto the rest of the set to win it 6-4.
The second set didn’t feature a service break until much later as the two sides traded holds at love for the first five games with the Americans ahead 3-2. After exchanging a few more holds, the Australians took their chance.
On their fourth breakpoint opportunity of the ninth game, they capitalized and found themselves one game away from advancing their side to the semi-finals. They held easily to win the match 6-4, 6-4 and book a date with Italy in the next round.
Australia’s Davis Cup run continues as they downed the high powered Americans in the quarterfinals thanks to a winner takes all doubles win by Jordan Thompson and Matthew Ebden. The Aussie men will now look for revenge against the Italians who swept them 2-0 in last year’s final.
