Australia’s United Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt has revealed injury “tweaks” were behind his decision not to play Alex de Minaur in the deciding mixed doubles rubber in Friday night’s quarter final loss to Poland.
After Maya Joint was blown off the court by Iga Swiatek 6-1, 6-1 in the first rubber, de Minaur got the hosts back in the tie with a stunning 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory over the in-form Hubert Hurkacz.
In the Aussies’ tie against Czechia, de Minaur was sent in to play mixed doubles having again levelled the tie, and was key in their progression through to the quarters.
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But instead of following the same formula against Poland, Hewitt sent in John-Patrick Smith with Storm Hunter. Despite both Hurkacz and Swiatek watching on the from the bench, the Polish duo of Jan Zielinski and Katarzyna Kawa made light work of the Aussie pair with a 6-4, 6-0 victory to move into the semi-final.
Lleyton Hewitt and Alex de Minaur during Australia’s United Cup tie against Poland. Getty
Speaking to media after the tie, Hewitt said the decision was made to protect the 26-year-old’s body ahead of the Australian Open.
“With Alex, he was feeling a few tweaks the last few days,” Hewitt said.
“He’s been doing a lot of training in the off-season to get ready for five-set matches. We decided the best thing for his body moving forward was not to put his hand up to play mixed.
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“It is tough to make a decision so quickly. If you are that second match, to turn around straight away and switch on. You just don’t want to risk injury as well at certain times, especially the amount of moving he had to do tonight against a bloody quality player.”
De Minaur was heroic against Hurkacz. He saved nine break points in his first four sevice games, and then in the second set went on a roll and won 21 consecutive points on-serve.
Having won only 55 per cent of first serves in his loss to Casper Ruud in the opening tie against Norway, De Minaur won 82 per cent against Hurkacz.
De Minaur’s focus now turns to the Australian Open, where he could enter with his lowest-ever seeding.
Depending on results in the Hong Kong Open this weekend, De Minaur could be as high as No.5 in the world when the ranking are re-calculated on Monday, which would put him in the same quarter as Novak Djokovic, although they wouldn’t meet until the semi-finals at the earliest.
He would be the first Aussie man since Hewitt in 2006 to be ranked so high.
But when asked what that would men to him going into Melbourne Park, he played it with a straight bat – or racquet.
“I will talk about it when I know it’s 100 per cent certain,” he said with a grin.
“It is what it is. I think ultimately in tennis there’s so many variables, right? Over the years that’s something I’ve obsessed about, something that I’ve looked at after every single match, focused on everyone else’s results.
“As I saw last year, it consumed me, right? It was too much. I’m doing my best to kind of be a lot more chilled out about it. If it happens, it happens. I think I played some good tennis here.
“Ultimately, any improvements would be welcome. Those are the goals that I’m pursuing. Whether I achieve it this next coming week or at the end of the year or in the middle of the year, I’m going to be looking forward to hopefully finishing off the year higher than I did this last year.
“That’s my main goal.”
The United Cup continues on Saturday with the semi finals between Belgium and Switzerland, followed by the USA and Poland.