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“I don’t know if I’ve been that pumped up in my life. I wanted that for my team,” said Kokkinakis, after finally prevailing on his seventh match point in the marathon 30-point breaker.
“It could have gone either way, but I kept my nerve.”
Hewitt reckoned it hadn’t been a gamble to play Kokkinakis, even though he’d only played one lower-level Challenger in Sydney and a losing Laver Cup singles in the two months since two big wins at the Davis Cup qualifiers in Valencia.
The much higher-ranked Montreal Masters winner Alexei Popyrin and Thompson were both overlooked, with Hewitt grinning: “He (Kokkinakis) played like the winner of the New South Wales Open Challenger about a month ago!
“Obviously, never easy making these decisions but we know if we can get him going out there and playing his highest level, he’s dangerous for anybody, I don’t care who it is. I had full belief in him.
“We kind of put him on ice, pretty much until now, and let him off the leash today, and he fully repaid us.”
Belief amply rewarded, Hewitt then thrust a disappointingly flat de Minaur into the second singles for a rematch with world No.4 Fritz, who had only just pipped him at the ATP Finals the previous week.
The key moment came as Bryan revealed his doubles switch 15 minutes before they were due to go on court.
“We were expecting the other pair and but we knew they’ve got incredible players who can play doubles, so we were ready,” said Ebden, who like Thompson has won grand slam doubles but both with a different partner, Purcell, who was cheering on at courtside after recent injury struggles. “What a day!…”
AAP