![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4ab935a82a00a1fb439c4cb0323d7e42.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nAn under-strength Australian line-up are on the brink of an upset Davis Cup loss to Ecuador after Rinky Hijikata and James Duckworth both suffered tight three-set losses on day one of the qualifying tie in Quito.<\/p>\n
Conditions favoured the host nation on clay at high-altitude on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) and they took full advantage in the opening two singles matches.<\/p>\n
Alvaro Guillen Meza edged Hijikata 6-4 1-6 6-4 in the first match and then Andres Andrade came from a set down to beat Duckworth 3-6 6-3 7-5 in a contest where a heavy downpour caused a long break in play during the deciding set.<\/p>\n
Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt was unable to call on world No.6 Alex de Minaur, Alexei Popyrin, Adam Walton or Thanasi Kokkinakis.<\/p>\n
De Minaur made the tough decision to make himself unavailable for a Davis Cup tie for the first time since debuting in 2018 to help preserve his body after a brutal 2025 campaign.<\/p>\n
Doubles pairing Hijikata and Jason Kubler will be tasked with keeping the best-of-five tie alive against Gonzalo Escobar and Diego Hidalgo on Sunday (Monday AEDT) with the reverse singles to follow.<\/p>\n
The winners will advance to another qualifying tie against Britain in September while the losers drop down a level.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
James Duckworth was edged in a tight rain-affected tussle by Andres Andrade. (EPA PHOTO)<\/p>\n
The Australians have been mainstays of the season-ending eight-team Davis Cup finals in recent years, finishing as runners-up in 2023 and 2024.<\/p>\n
Australia won the only previous Davis Cup tie against Ecuador played back in 2001 when Hewitt was a key member of a star-studded squad also including Pat Rafter.<\/p>\n
Evergreen Raul Viver was the non-playing Ecuadorian captain 25 years ago and still holds the same position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An under-strength Australian line-up are on the brink of an upset Davis Cup loss to Ecuador after Rinky…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18278,38872,238318,238317,64,63,6566,25196,70624,37660,44,94311],"class_list":["post-465761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-alex-de-minaur","tag-alexei-popyrin","tag-alvaro-guillen-meza","tag-andres-andrade","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-davis-cup","tag-ecuador","tag-james-duckworth","tag-lleyton-hewitt","tag-news","tag-rinky-hijikata"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}