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Lleyton Hewitt to play Davis Cup doubles for Australia

Tomic, the world No. 20, said his wrist injury would have prevented him from competing had he not been playing Davis Cup for Australia.

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In the fifth set, the Bryans started well winning the opening eight points to lead 2-0 and eventually went on to win the set and match 6-3 in two hours and 29 minutes.

It gave his team an unbeatable lead on the Kooyong grass before all hell broke loose in the Australian ranks last night.

“Two times. Two times he’s faked it”, Channel Seven cameras caught Tomic muttering to Hewitt during his loss to Isner.

“For me, we ruled Nick out”, Hewitt said.

But his legs were the more obvious issue in Melbourne on Sunday, and his frustration was evident when he lashed out at his absent teammate, saying: “Nick’s sitting down in Canberra”.

During his match with Isner, Tomic was overheard during a changeover questioning Kyrgios’s absence from the tie.

“Now it’s going to be really amusing, the next few days, to see if he plays or not – which I think he will. That’s going to tell me a lot”.

“I asked him “are you going to play Indian Wells” and he said “yeah, I’m still sick, but I’m going to be better tomorrow”. “It’s bullshit he’s sick”, the 23-year-old said.

“We finished the (conversation with Kyrgios) on good terms, but it was weird”.

The comments provoked an angry response from Kyrgios, who tweeted: “Heat of the moment, not gonna take it personally”.

The ATP Masters event in Indian Wells starts this week.

Kyrgios later fired back on Twitter, telling Tomic he would not have his back anytime soon. But a decision was made by the ITF to stage a 100th-anniversary celebration of the Davis Cup at Longwood Cricket Club near Boston, so that match was played there.

Bernard Tomic will attempt to keep the home tie alive when he takes on world number 11 Isner in the first of the reverse singles on Sunday.

Tomic was kicked off the team last year for a second time in his career after publicly criticizing top Australian tennis officials at Wimbledon last year.

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But Tomic, at the end of his press conference, said that the pair still shared a “good relationship”. His serve, of course, is always a major weapon – he rocketed down 49 aces in total – but his groundstrokes, volleying and court craft were also too much for Tomic early.

Nick Kyrgios Replaced by Lleyton Hewitt in 2016 Davis Cup