Nick Kyrgios left out of Australian Davis Cup team

Winning the doubles final at the Australian Open wasn’t enough for volatile character Nick Kyrgios to earn a place in the Aussie’s Davis Cup team.

That is according to reports coming from Australia as Lleyton Hewitt is set to make his picks for the Australian Davis Cup team for the upcoming ties. Despite Kyrgios not making the team his doubles partner and Australian Open champion Thanasi Kokkinakis was named to the team.

Hewitt’s Australia play Hungary in their qualifying cup clash on March 4 and 5 and he is confident he’s picked out a strong enough squad without the need for the outspoken 26-year-old. The players hoping to overcome Hungary, who are being led by former world No 31 Marton Fucsovics, next month are Kokkinakis, debutant Luke Saville, Australian No 1 Alex de Minaur, 2017 Australian Open doubles winner John Peers and world No 65 Alexei Popyrin.

On his decisions, Hewitt said:

"Alex has had most of his recent success in Sydney, winning the Sydney International a few years back but also some of his best results last month, including quality wins against (Matteo) Berrettini and (Ugo) Humbert. Thanasi had a fantastic Australian summer, he really cemented himself as a top 100 player again, winning his first title at home in Adelaide and beating quality players – and then to go on to win the Australian Open doubles, this is going to give him a lot of confidence heading into this tie."

He finished off with:

“Popyrin got an opportunity to play a big Davis Cup match in the finals last year, he has a lot of firepower out there, a lot of weapons as well and certainly an option for singles or doubles – John Peers has been a regular in the Davis Cup team for a number of years now, he’s a top 15 doubles player, he won the Sydney Tennis Classic a couple of weeks ago and played exceptionally well with Luke Saville at the ATP Cup last month.”