On the finish of England’s Ashes summer time, Lleyton Hewitt’s Australian group will face the tennis equal once they tackle hosts Nice Britain within the group stage of the Davis Cup finals in Manchester.
A couple of miles from Previous Trafford in September, the Australians, who’re hoping to go one higher than final yr once they have been crushed by Canada within the last, have been drawn in a tricky group on the AO Enviornment alongside GB, France and Switzerland.
The quantity two seeds should end within the prime two within the group to progress to the finals again in Malaga the place they simply missed out in 2022.
Alex de Minaur, presently the world No.18, had a superb event in Spain, spearheading a group that includes Jordan Thompson (now No.83), Max Purcell (99) and Thanasi Kokkinakis (94) which surpassed expectations as Australia reached the ultimate for the primary time in 19 years.
Jason Kubler (70), Chris O’Connell (86) and Alexei Popyrin (93) look able to battle for locations within the group too, even when there stays no signal that Nick Kyrgios is more likely to finish his exile from the event after preferring to money in at a profitable exhibition occasion in Saudi Arabia as a substitute of final yr.
Whoever makes the September group will face a tricky problem with Nice Britain having world No.12 Cameron Norrie, No.29 Dan Evans, the rising star Jack Draper (No.43) and indomitable veteran Andy Murray (No.52) to select from .
France have energy in depth, with 9 males within the ATP Tour’s top-100, headed by one other outdated warhorse Richard Gasquet (No.40), whereas Switzerland, maybe the weakest group within the group, should doubtlessly be capable to name on two -time grand slam winner Stan Wawrinka (No.87).
The host venues for the group phases, introduced on the attract Malaga on Wednesday, have been Manchester, Valencia, Bologna and a yet-to-be-decided Croatian metropolis.
Champions Canada, who convincingly beat Hewitt’s males within the last thanks largely to the sensible double act of Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov, will face hosts Italy, Sweden and Chile of their Bologna group.
In Valencia, there’s the mouth-watering prospect of Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal teaming up for the hosts, in opposition to Serbia, with Novak Djokovic of their ranks, in addition to the Czech Republic and South Korea,
The Croatian group may even function the Netherlands, the USA and Finland.
The highest eight groups will go on to the finals week, once more in Malaga, between November 21 and 26.
