IT has seemed a world away since Spain lifted the 2019 Davis Cup. While the 2020 edition was ultimately cancelled and had to be postponed until 2021, it gives tennis fans extra time to work out what teams might look like when it recommences.

Draft Central will take a look at various nations over the break and see what the team might look like. Today’s team is Australia, a nation which has a rich history in the Davis Cup, but is currently ranked 11th, due to having inconsistent line-ups with unavailability and team discipline bans.

TEAM:

#23 Alex de Minaur
#38 John Millman
#45 Nick Kyrgios
#28D John Peers

Australia has rarely been able to put out its best side for the Davis Cup of late, with plenty of up-and-coming talents, but injuries and disciplinary problems having restricted Lleyton Hewitt‘s nation from success. In their last outing, the then-third ranked singles player John Millman and fourth ranked Jordan Thompson easily took care of Brazil, but coming up against the big nations, the Australians will need the big guns in.

The question surrounding Australia always seems to be talent up against effort, and there seems to be either too much of one or the other. Alex de Minaur is a player who has found the balance between both, always giving it a red hot crack and still having the talent to knock over top opponents. He is the clear choice for the number one singles for that balance of consistency and determination.

Nick Kyrgios should be the number two singles player. Realistically at his best, he is by far the best male tennis player in Australia. At his worst, he can drop some shocking games, but is often mistaken for throwing them, when realistically he is losing it out of frustration more so than deliberately throwing them ala Bernard Tomic. Kyrgios could beat anyone – he has not lost to Novak Djokovic as an example – and between he and de Minaur, they could win the whole Davis Cup.

To balance out the uncertainty around the top two – de Minaur has had some injury niggles as well in the last 12 months – Millman is an obvious and deserving choice. He is a player who can stand up on hard court, but if you went to clay you would need to pick the other two. He will give you 100 per cent effort each and every time, and you could back him against a second singles opponent, but would struggle against the big nations’ first singles player. He bleeds for the colours though, and would be great to play against opponents he can control the tempo with as it would suit him more than Kyrgios.

John Peers has been the designated doubles player for some time now, and will get the gig again. Being one of the top in the world, it makes sense, and he can just about play with anyone. Of the three singles players, de Minaur is the highest ranked doubles player, so the Davis Cup combination could be de Minaur and Kyrgios on day one, Peers and de Minaur in the doubles on day two, and Kyrgios and Millman for the final day singles.

Picture: WWOS – Nine