― File picDARWIN, July 18 ― Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Groth kept Australia alive in their Davis Cup World Group quarter-final against Kazakhstan with a fighting doubles victory in Darwin today.
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World number three Murray clinched his country’s first semi-final berth for 34 years with a 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, 6-0 win over Gilles Simon, sealing the tie 3-1 after playing three days in succession at Queen’s Club in London.
Australia will meet either Britain or France for a place in their first final since 2003 after the hard-bitten former world No 1 trounced Aleksandr Nedovyesov 7-6(2) 6-2 6-3 in the Darwin sunshine.
That came with Sam Groth and Lleyton Hewitt, completing the comeback on Sunday to let Australia beat Kazakhstan 3-2, winning the last two rubbers.
“When I make my schedule, everything has worked around the Davis Cup and trying to get the most out of myself. This is what dreams are made of”.
Groth replaced Kyrgios in the reverse singles after the 20-year-old was criticized for his on-court demeanor in Friday’s loss in the second singles match against Kazakhstan, as well as at Wimbledon, where he was fined almost $10,000 for racket abuse and swearing.
“I hope that [Kyrgios and Kokkinakis] realize that no one sits in judgement that they lost a tennis match”, Masur said.
“It was a tough start for the team but Mikhail is their best player”, Groth said.
A saltwater crocodile was used in helping select the match-ups for Australia’s Davis Cup World Group quarter-final tie with Kazakhstan on Thursday.
The victory vaults Australia into the September 18-20th semifinals against either Great Britain or France.
Mikhail Kukushkin beat Thanasi Kokkinakis in Friday’s opener before Nedoveysov surprised Nick Kyrgios to stake the visitor to a 2-0 lead on Friday.
Tomic, who was kicked out of the team for an extraordinary outburst against Australian tennis officials at Wimbledon, was charged with trespassing and resisting arrest on Thursday following complaints over a noisy penthouse party at his Miami Beach hotel.
“This is probably the highest pressure situation I have had to play in so to be able to overcome that, I thought I handled the situation really well”.
“So the tennis gods were on the Aussie side”.
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They were both critical at the time of TA’s announcement during this year’s Australian Open to install Masur as interim captain in the period between Rafter’s elevation to the performance director’s role and the end of Hewitt’s long playing career.
