SYDNEY:
World quantity eight Alex de Minaur pledged Friday to “make life tough” for Belgium as he strives to place Australia into the Davis Cup finals for a fourth straight 12 months.
However he faces a difficult encounter in opposition to 91st-ranked Raphael Collignon in Saturday’s opening singles rubber of their second-round qualifier at Sydney.
Collignon made his presence felt on the just-completed US Open, posting a career-best win over world quantity 12 and former finalist Casper Ruud en path to the third spherical.
“He will come after me and my job is to make his life tough, principally,” stated De Minaur, who made the final eight at Flushing Meadows.
“We’re taking part in at house, we’re taking part in at a court docket that I really like, and hopefully I can come out tomorrow, put some good tennis on the board and get us off to an excellent begin.”
Jordan Thompson will play the opposite singles conflict in opposition to Belgian Zizou Bergs, ranked 31 locations larger than him at 46, earlier than the reverse singles and doubles on Sunday.
Belgium must overcome an eight-year drought in opposition to Australia to achieve the ultimate eight for the primary time since 2018.
Steve Darcis, now Belgium captain, performed of their 2017 World Group semi-final victory over Australia, beating Thompson earlier than they misplaced to France within the remaining.
He admitted it will likely be a tricky job to repeat the feat in opposition to the 28-time champions, who have been runners-up in 2022 and 2023 and semi-finalists final 12 months.
However Darcis has confidence in his crew.
“Zizou has numerous power, typically we have to calm him down a bit of bit, however he loves Davis Cup, he loves the massive crowd, he likes to play for his nation, so for us, it is good to have him within the crew,” he stated.
“For Raf, he is a bit of bit new. So, I’ll try to assist him.”
The Davis Cup finals will likely be hosted by defending champions Italy in November, with the seven groups that win this weekend’s qualifiers becoming a member of them.
