Australia Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt said yesterday Nick Kyrgios had a good chance of playing in this week’s World Group playoff and backed his young star after a slew of on-court controversies.
Australia’s number one, who yesterday rose to a career-high 15th, in the world, was forced to quit his third round US Open match against Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko eight days ago with a hip injury.
But Hewitt said the early signs were “very encouraging” that he could feature in the tie against Slovakia beginning in Sydney on Friday.
“It was a good hit-out from Nick today. It’s going to be management over the next three to four days with him,” Hewitt told reporters.
Hewitt added that he would probably make a decision late on Wednesday whether Kyrgios would play the tie.
“Hopefully the hip pulls up well, but we’ve just got to take it day by day and (weigh) up how much grass-court practice he needs as well to be able to go out there and play as close to 100 percent as possible come Friday.”
Kyrgios, who made his Davis Cup debut in the doubles as an 18-year-old in 2013, has only played a total of four ties, with a 3-4 win-loss record in singles.
Both Kyrgios and Davis Cup teammate Bernard Tomic have generated unwanted headlines through their on-court antics, but Hewitt defended the troubled young pair.
Former world number one Hewitt backed his controversial youngsters, saying Kyrgios and Tomic “can do great things for the sport of tennis”.
“You look at Nick and he’s kind of an NBA basketballer playing tennis and that brings a whole other lot of kids that want to come and play tennis,” Hewitt said.
“And you’ve just got to use it in the right way but I see these guys doing a lot of kids clinics behind the scenes and they’re fantastic.”
Tomic was at the centre of a foul-mouthed controversy at the US Open last month when he became embroiled in a lewd exchange with a heckler on the way to his first-round exit to Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia.
Tennis great John McEnroe lashed Kyrgios’s commitment, saying he should “do something else” if he did not want to play tennis.
But Hewitt said the 21-year-old did not let it get to him too much.
“I think he handles it okay. He comes out here and he does his thing. He’s in his own little world a lot of the time.
“He doesn’t worry about a lot of things that are going on outside and I think he’s focused on coming here and getting a job done,” Hewitt said.
“He hasn’t played a lot of Davis Cup in the last couple of years. He wants to be here, he wants to play and for me to have him at my disposal. It strengthens our team a lot.”