30-point thriller: Thanasi Kokkinakis and Ben Shelton break five-year record in sixth longest Davis Cup tie-break ever

Thanasi Kokkinakis fought past Ben Shelton in three sets which put Australia to the brink of victory and given their doubles win later on in the piece was the catalyst in the end as the duo played out a 30-point thriller.

Kokkinakis was drafted in to battle Shelton with questions instead asked of Bob Bryan's decision to draft in the latter ahead of Tommy Paul considering his positive head-to-head record against Kokkinakis.

Those questions were further theorised when he lost the opening set 6-1 and while he recovered it went all the way in the deciding set to a tie-break in which both had a myriad of match points finishing in the end 16-14 to Kokkinakis.

He finally converted his seventh match point to take home the win for Australia. he also had to save four match points. It is the longest tie-break at the Davis Cup Finals since Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies beat Maximo Gonzalez and Leonard Mayer 7-6 (20-18) in a third set tie-breaker back in 2018.

"Oh man, I don’t know if I’ve been that pumped up in my life. I wanted that one bad, I wanted to help my team," said Kokkinakis.

"I came out playing unbelievable, I thought the second set I was a little bit unlucky but I thought I was playing good tennis throughout. Could’ve gone either way towards the end, that’s tennis, but I kept my nerve and I really wanted to win for the boys."

"It was tough, we were both serving well. I thought I only got probably tight on one shot, I had a little backhand there on match point where I was just a bit hesitant on," he continued.

"Apart from that I didnt have many chances to do anything, he was serving incredible. One or two points here or there, I kept - I can’t even speak. I’m happy."

"It’s a massive win for me. You know, every match has its own special sort of moments but to play not only for myself for the boys out there, Lleyton showed faith in me.

"Everyone’s come from Australia to try and get the boys in the best possible shape. We’ve got a lot of great players on the bench as well so anyone could’ve played but I just wanted to give it my all. I never know how I’m going to play, if I play well or not, but I just want to give it my all and give myself a chance."