Australia’s tennis warriors suffered Davis Cup despair, falling a set short of completing one of the greatest comebacks in the 125-year-old competition’s history.
A day after overcoming severe cramps to challenge Alex de Minaur, underrated world number 91 Raphael Collignon exhausted substitute Aleksandar Vukic 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-3 in the decider to lead Belgium to a thrilling 3-2 second qualifying round triumph in Sydney.
In total, the tennis ironman spent almost five and a half hours on court to break Australian hearts once again, after Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt – once engaged to former Belgian world number one Kim Clijsters – also featured in crushing 3-2 defeats to the small European nation in 2007, 2010 and 2017.
With two bold selections from Hewitt, his all-Sydney team looked set to become the third Australian team in Davis Cup history to overturn a 2-0 deficit.
An inspired three-set doubles win from Jordan Thompson and Cup debutant Rinky Hijikata and de Minaur’s redemption in Sunday’s first reverse singles match had leveled the tie.
De Minaur atoned for a shock opening day flop with a resounding 6-2 7-5 victory over Zizou Bergs to level the tie at 2-2, after Thompson and Hijikata recovered from the brink to claim a tense 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 6-4 victory over Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen to keep Australia’s hopes alive.
Alex de Minaur helped Australia recover from a 0-2 deficit to send the Davis Cup to Belgium in the decider. (Getty Images: Andy Cheung)
Placed in the deciding rubber after Hewitt opted to rest Thompson following his epic two-hour, 24-minute doubles show, Vukic won the first set at Collignon.
But in career form, arriving in Sydney after beating two-time Grand Slam finalist and world number 12 Casper Ruud at this month’s US Open, Collignon could not be denied.
While Belgium will advance to the Final 8 in Italy in November, Australia will be absent from the quarter-finals for the first time since 2021.
Hewitt’s Class of 2025 was striving to join Harry Hopman’s legendary 1939 team of John Bromwich, Adrian Quist and Jack Crawford, which beat the United States in the final and was one of only three Australian teams to overcome a 2-0 deficit.
Hewitt played on the only other team to achieve the feat, winning the decider against Kazakhstan in Darwin to pilot Australian teammates Nick Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Sam Groth to the 2015 semi-final.
Unfortunately, Australia will need to win two more qualifying matches next year to return to the quarter-finals.
In Sunday’s doubles, after losing four set points at 6-2 in the tiebreaker, the Australian dynamic duo were in big trouble in the second set, when Hijikata lost 0-40 on serve at 3-3.
But they avoided four break points to stay in the match – and the tie.
Taking advantage of this change in momentum, the Australians beat the Belgians for the first time in the very next match to take a 5-3 lead and never looked back.
PAA
