Tennis Australia Press Release, August 15, 2023
World No.12 Alex de Minaur (NSW), [55] Jordan Thompson (NSW), [70] Max Purcell (NSW), [78] Thanasi Kokkinakis (SA) and world No.9 doubles player Matt Ebden (WA) will represent Australia at the 2023 Davis Cup Finals Group Stage in Manchester, United Kingdom next month.
Australia is drawn in Group B alongside Great Britain, France and Switzerland and will compete at the AO Arena from 12-17 September 2023.
Australian Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt said selecting the team for Manchester was tough.
“There’s been a lot of really good performances not only in singles but also doubles throughout the year,” Hewitt said.
“It makes decision making for the Davis Cup team and the squad really tough but that’s a position that myself, (Tony) Roche and Crabby (Jaymon Crabb) enjoy being in. We prefer to have it that way over having limited players to choose from.
“Alex de Minaur has played some of his best tennis in Davis Cup, so we’re very fortunate to have him spearheading us again going into Manchester. He’s come off a fantastic run in Toronto.
“Jordan Thompson played some really good tennis in Washington only a couple of weeks ago on the hard courts. But also I thought he played one of his best matches he has ever played when he played Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon earlier this year.
“Max Purcell, he’s another player who can play singles or doubles. He’s had some big wins in singles this year and got his ranking into a position where he can play all the big tournaments. We all know what a quality doubles player he is as well.
“Thanasi Kokkinakis, another fantastic ballstriker who is capable of playing a lot better tennis than where his ranking’s at. He has the fire power to put a lot of players under pressure.
“And Matt Ebden has played a lot of big matches for us. He played fantastic in Hamburg last year in the doubles. He’s had an incredible year and is top 10 in doubles.”
Australia, who recorded a runner-up finish in 2022, the nation’s best result in 19 years, will be playing for a spot in the Final 8.
“We’re in a really tough group in Manchester,” Hewitt said. “They’re all quality teams and we’re going to have to be on our game in every single match and every rubber against all three nations.
“Our main focus is to finish in the top two and we have to somehow give ourselves an opportunity to get to Malaga again in November. We’ll be doing absolutely everything in our power.”
De Minaur, the new world No.12, said the team is looking to improve on last year’s performance.
“I think what motivates us is to try and get one better than we did last year,” De Minaur said.
“We got so close to being able to lift that Davis Cup trophy, that gave us a lot of fire in the belly to come back and go for more.
“In Manchester we have a very tough group, a lot of very good players. Very dangerous, players and nations, so it’s going to be very tough, we have to come together as a team and hopefully be able to put a strong performance in both the singles and doubles.”
Davis Cup Finals Group Stage (12-17 September 2023)
Australian Davis Cup team schedule – Manchester, United Kingdom
Australia v Great Britain – Wednesday 13 September 1pm BST (10pm AEST)
14th Davis Cup meeting, Australia leads head-to-head 8-5
Australia v France – Thursday 14 September 1pm BST (10pm AEST)
17th Davis Cup meeting, Australia leads head-to-head 11-5
Australia v Switzerland – Saturday 16 September 1pm BST (10pm AEST)
6th Davis Cup meeting, Australia leads head-to-head 4-1
Alex de Minaur sits at a career-high ranking of 12 after reaching his first ATP Masters 1000 final in Toronto last weekend. This is the highest singles ranking for an Australian man in 17 years. Toronto was De Minaur’s fourth singles final of the season, after winning an ATP 500 title in Acapulco and runner-up appearances at Queen’s Club and Los Cabos.
Jordan Thompson is currently the world No.55. The in-form 29-year-old was a finalist at the ATP 250 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch and scored two top-30 wins in Washington to advance to his third ATP-level quarterfinal of the season. Thompson teamed up with Purcell to reach the Wimbledon doubles third round, win an ATP doubles title in Houston and reach the doubles final in Atlanta.
Max Purcell made his Davis Cup debut in September 2022. The 25-year-old reached a career-high singles ranking of 62 in June after making six ATP Challenger singles finals and winning three titles in India. In doubles, Purcell holds a 14-5 win loss record this season winning an ATP 250 doubles title with Thompson in Houston and final appearances in Atlanta and Newport.
Thanasi Kokkinakis first debuted for Australia at Davis Cup in 2014. The South Australian already holds a 6-2 win loss record on the US hard court swing this season. He reached the third round of Roland Garros, semifinals of the ATP 250 in Adelaide and won an ATP Challenger title in Bahrain.
Matt Ebden sits at a career-high doubles ranking of No.9. The West Australian reached the Wimbledon doubles semifinals, won the ATP 1000 doubles title in Indian Wells and the doubles at the ATP 250 in Doha. Ebden also made the doubles finals at the ATP 1000 in Madrid and ATP 500 in Rotterdam.
The Group Stage will take place across four cities – Manchester, Valencia, Bologna and Split.
Sixteen teams will feature in the Group Stage. Canada (2022 winners), Australia (2022 runners-up) and wildcards Italy and Spain will be joined by Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Great Britain, Korea, Netherlands, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland and USA.
A round-robin format will be played with the top two teams in each group progressing to the Final 8 in Malaga, Spain from 21-26 November where the 2023 Davis Cup champions will be decided.
