Alex de Minaur's telling admission amid furore surrounding Nick Kyrgios
Alex de Minaur has revealed he attempted to get Nick Kyrgios to come back and play for Australia in the Davis Cup finals but was rejected. Kyrgios has been copping it in the tennis world after choosing not to play Davis Cup (which he hasn't done since 2019) after the Aussies went down in the final to Canada last month.
Kyrgios instead chose to play an exhibition event in Saudi Arabia, boasting about the six-figure payday he'd received as a result. When asked about his absence from the Davis Cup fold, the World No.22 said a lack of respect from the Australian public was one of his main reasons.
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Speaking on Friday, de Minaur re-iterated that he'd tried to get Kyrgios to play - to no avail. De Minaur told the Sydney Morning Herald: "We had that conversation. He wasn't available to play. That's kind of how it went."
Kyrgios and de Minaur will reunite for the inaugural United Cup, which takes place from December 29 to January 8. The new mixed teams event effectively rekindles the old Hopman Cup, which was axed in 2019 in favour of the ATP Cup.
Tellingly, de Minaur said playing for Australia comes "before anything else" for him. "For me, there's no greater honour than to represent your country and that's been my belief always," he said from his Spanish base of Alicante.
"It's another chance, another opportunity to do everything I can to hopefully get a win for Australia. So I'll make sure that I'm ready to go and ready to give it my all."
The United Cup will see the world's top men and women team up in a best-of-five-match format for the first time. Unlike the Hopman Cup, the new event will have ATP and WTA rankings points on offer. With Kyrgios back on national duty for the first time in three years, Australia will boast a full-strength line-up also featuring Ajla Tomljanovic and doubles ace John Peers.
Alex de Minaur excited for Australian tennis
2022 has been a remarkable year for Australian tennis, with Ash Barty becoming the first Aussie to win the Australian Open in 44 years, Kyrgios making the Wimbledon final and US Open quarters, Tomljanovic reaching the last eight at the All England Club and Flushing Meadows, and Australia qualifying for the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup finals for the first time since 1993. De Minaur said it means so much to be a part of it.
"It just shows what we've been able to accomplish this year in Australian tennis," he said on Friday. "People should realise how meaningful those two results are because they're very long years and, us Aussies, we tend to spend a lot more time than anybody else on tour away from home. And for us to just show how much it means to play for Australia and how much pride we have in representing the green and gold."
Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis also won the Australian Open men's doubles title, while Matt Ebden and Max Purcell did the same at Wimbledon. Ebden also made the mixed doubles final at Wimbledon alongside Sam Stosur - who is co-captain of the United Cup team alongside Lleyton Hewitt.
De Minaur said winning the United Cup would be an "amazing" way to kick-start the new year ahead of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park. The 23-year-old said he hopes fans will fill Sydney's Ken Rosewall Arena for Australia's group matches against Great Britain and Rafa Nadal's Spain, and potentially the finals.
"We were in Malaga not too long ago playing for a Davis Cup title basically in a neutral venue, when back in the day you would tend to have packed up stadiums for people either cheering for or against you," the World No.24 said. "That always made all of this very special.
"But we now get the chance to represent our country in Australia, at home, so it's going to be great. It would mean a lot if we could do some damage, take home the title - especially in front of our home crowd."
with AAP
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