Stosur, Hewitt to captain ‘hyped up’ Cup
Murray Wenzel |
Sam Stosur has described the United Cup as a “huge step forward” for tennis and expects the best version of Nick Kyrgios when Australia locks horns with Spain.
Stosur has been named playing co-captain for Australia alongside fellow US Open winner Lleyton Hewitt in the new, mixed teams event set for Brisbane, Sydney and Perth.
It replaces the men’s ATP Cup and mixed Hopman Cup: men and women from 18 countries to play for rankings points in a team environment to launch Australia’s summer of tennis from December 29.
Australia will play Rafael Nadal-led Spain in Sydney and Stosur admits the prospect of sharing the captain’s bench with Hewitt – and potentially the court with Nick Kyrgios or Alex de Minaur – is thrilling.
“There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about the (ATP and WTA) tours combining or doing more together,” she said.
“This – playing for something, your country, for points – it’s fantastic, a huge step forward for our sport and you never know where it can go from here.”
The Hopman Cup, long a Perth staple, will be reborn in France later next year but Stosur said this will be “like a superstar, hyped up version of that”.
Retired from singles, Stosur will likely inject herself for mixed doubles action with any of Australia’s No.1 Kyrgios, de Minaur, Jason Kubler or John Peers.
Ajla Tomljanovic, Maddison Inglis and Zoe Hives round out the team, while Stosur will share the bench with Hewitt, 10 years after playing mixed doubles with the former world No.1 at the London Olympics.
“I’ll want to put myself in, but you do what’s good for the team on the day,” Stosur mused of her dual role.
“Playing with Nick would be an incredible experience … and I’ve always loved watching Alex play, the way he goes about it is phenomenal.”
Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios didn’t feature in Australia’s recent charge to the Davis Cup final, the mercurial talent a no-show for three successive years in the event despite his attraction to the team environment.
He is currently competing in a lucrative Saudi Arabia exhibition tournament and will return home for a much-hyped date with Nadal.
It will be their first clash since the Spaniard retired with injury to scupper a Wimbledon semi-final blockbuster date with the Australian.
“Its no secret he loves the team environment and playing in a group brings out some of his best tennis,” Stosur said.
Each city will host two groups of three countries competing in a round-robin format and then play a city final, with the winners of those plus the next-best team advancing to the United Cup Final Four in Sydney from January 6-8.
Greece, led by world No.3 Stefanos Tsitsipas and Maria Sakkari, are the top seeds while Poland’s women’s world No.1 Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz (No.11) are second.
Nadal, Casper Rudd, Alexander Zverev, Jessica Pegula and Stan Wawrinka will also play for their respective countries, however Novak Djokovic will be a notable absentee after Serbia failed to qualify.
AAP
