On the back of his Wimbledon win, Western Australia’s Matt Ebden will take to the court in Germany next month as he has been named for the 2022 Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals – Group Stage in Hamburg. Ebden was selected alongside Max Purcell – the other half of Wimbledon men’s doubles champion duo – as well as World No 20 Alex de Minaur and Thanasi Kokkinakis.
Australia is drawn in Pool C alongside Germany, France and Belgium and will compete at the Am Rothenbaum – Germany’s largest tennis venue – from 13-18 September 2022.
Australia’s top-ranked male player de Minaur will lead the team in his tenth Davis Cup tie. The 23-year-old won both singles matches in Australia’s Davis Cup Qualifier against Hungary in March and captured his sixth career ATP singles title in Atlanta in August.
Kokkinakis, 26, who won the Adelaide singles title and doubles titles at the Australian Open and Atlanta this year, will make his sixth Davis Cup appearance.
Wimbledon doubles champions Ebden and Purcell, the first all-Aussie winners at the All England Club since former Davis Cup champions Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in 2000, are strong additions to the team.
Ebden made his first Australian Davis Cup appearance in 2012 and returns to the side for the first time since 2018.
Purcell will make his Davis Cup debut in Hamburg, although wearing the green and gold won’t be too unfamiliar for the 24-year-old who represented Australia at the ATP Cup in January and in singles and doubles at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Alexei Popyrin and Jason Kubler, ranked 76 and 118 respectively, will also travel to Germany in the six man squad.
Australian Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt said the team will be focused on the job at hand.
“We fought through a really tough qualifying match back in March against Hungary which has now given us this opportunity to build on and the boys understand what’s at stake. I look forward to Alex leading the team in Hamburg,” Hewitt said.
“The Group Stage is always extra tough but our goal is to certainly qualify for the quarterfinals.
“It would have been great to have Nick [Kyrgios] in the team but unfortunately he was unavailable for this tie.”
Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals – Group Stage (13-18 September 2022)
Australian Davis Cup team schedule – Hamburg, Germany
Australia vs Belgium – Tuesday 13 September 2pm CEST
Australia vs France – Thursday 15 September 2pm CEST
Australia vs Germany – Sunday 18 September 2pm CEST
The Group Stage will take place across four cities – Bologna, Glasgow, Valencia and Hamburg.
The Finals will feature 16 teams. The 12 winners in the Davis Cup by Rakuten Qualifiers – Argentina, Australia, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Korea, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and USA – join Croatia (2021 runner up), Serbia (losing 2021 semifinalist) and the two wildcards, Canada and Great Britain.
The 16 teams will compete in four round-robin groups of four teams. The top two teams in each group will advance to the knock-out stage of the Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals in Malaga from 22-27 November where the Davis Cup champions will be crowned.
Australia defeated Hungary 3-2 in the Davis Cup Qualifiers at Ken Rosewall Arena, Sydney in March to advance to the Group Stage.
For more information about the Davis Cup by Rakuten Finals visit https://www.daviscupfinals.com/venues/hamburg.
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