Doubles stars lift Australia past France
Star doubles pairing Matt Ebden and Max Purcell secured a memorable come-from-behind victory for Australia over France.
The reigning Wimbledon doubles champions combined to record a 6-4 6-4 victory against French duo Nicolas Mahut and Arthur Rinderknech in the deciding doubles rubber, sealing a 2-1 triumph for Australia.
“These moments are what it’s all about, being able to perform under pressure,” Ebden said. “It was a big team effort and great to finish on top.”
Earlier in the tie, Richard Gasquet gave France a perfect start. The former world No.7 recorded a 6-2 6-4 victory against Australian Jason Kubler in the opening singles rubber.
“Unfortunately I didn’t execute the way I wanted to do today,” Kubler said. “I’ll look back and learn from my mistakes.”
Alex de Minaur then levelled the tie, battling past world No.53 Benjamin Bonzi 6-3 1-6 6-4 in a two-hour encounter.
“I’m very happy to get a win for my country,” De Minaur said. “And the end of the day that’s all that matters, it doesn’t matter how you play, how you do it, as long as you find a way to get a win. That was my job today and I was happy I was able to do that.”
De Minaur was frustrated to only convert four of the 17 break points he earned.
“I just kept telling myself to stay in there, hang around and I was going to have more chances,” De Minaur said. “It’s Davis Cup anything can happen. When you play with passion and heart, there’s always a chance.”
Australia is in a strong position to advance to the knockout stages of the Davis Cup Finals in November. Today’s victory reaffirms Lleyton Hewitt's team's position at the top of Group C.
“I’m really proud of the whole team again today,” Hewitt said. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, certainly after (France’s) tight loss yesterday. We knew they were going to throw everything at us today and they did just that. All three matches were extremely tough.”
Australia faces Germany in its final round-robin match on Sunday.
