Alex de Minaur and Thanasi Kokkinakis lose singles, and Lleyton Hewitt’s team now need to beat France
Australian Associated PressAlex de Minaur and Thanasi Kokkinakis have both succumbed in the dramatic “tennis Ashes” as an inspired British team swept to victory over Australia in theirThe Australians were belatedly indebted to a crucial doubles win for Matt Ebden and Max Purcell which reduced the final deficit to 2-1 and left captain Lleyton Hewitt still believing his team – while on the backfoot – can make it to the finals in November.
The hosts, playing in front of a partisan 9,000 crowd in the AO Arena on Wednesday, caused a surprise by dropping their No 1 Cameron Norrie and all-time great Andy Murray but were left hailing their fresh prince in 21-year-old Draper after Kokkinakis had served for the match in the final set of the opening rubber.
It was a high-quality and exhilarating opening contest between two heavy hitters but Draper, who had just returned from a magnificent breakthrough US Open where he reached the last 16, proved just too good for the Adelaide man, who’d been trusted by Hewitt to play the key starter role despite a disappointing display in last year’s Malaga finals.
It was down to De Minaur, who had won seven of his last eight Davis Cup singles and was playing his first match as a world top-12 player, to save the day, but he started slowly against the attacking Evans before his familiar never-say-die excellence belatedly began to wear down the Briton, who’d won their only two previous meetings.
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