.
In the meantime, Hewitt is happy to rely on Alex de Minaur, a hungry newcomer Aleksandar Vukic and the veteran Olympic champion doubles pairing of Matt Ebden and John Peers to steer his side to victory in Stockholm.
After a chaotic Australian Open for Hewitt during which his selected team was decimated by injuries, with Kyrgios, Jordan Thompson and Thanasi Kokkinakis all succumbing, he ha still had the luxury of calling on quality replacements for the two-day tie starting on Friday (Saturday morning AEDT).
Kyrgios had been set for his first tie for five years until his comeback from a lengthy injury break was compromised by an abdominal issue and further concerns over his surgically reconstructed wrist.
“I was excited to think of the potential for him to be back in the Davis Cup team, but it wasn’t to be and obviously he’s very underdone with his body, so it’s not surprising he’s got an injury trying to play five-set tennis straight away without many matches,” said Hewitt.
“Hopefully, fingers crossed, we get through and he may be an option down the track.”
But the injuries have opened up an unexpected opportunity for late-blooming 28-year-old Vukic, who revealed during his breakthrough run at the Open, during which he knocked out the seeded Seb Korda, how much he coveted the thought of a Davis Cup debut.
The 116th man to play Davis Cup tennis for Australia, world No 66 Vukic was moved to be welcomed to the team in a jacket-presentation ceremony by the great Ken Rosewall.
“Yeah pretty surreal, wasn’t expecting it,” Vukic said. “For him to be there, especially someone else from Sydney as well, I was telling him I play on his court a lot. It’s very …
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