By Adrianna Outlaw | Sunday, July 19, 2015
It was veteran's day in Darwin.
A day after Sam Groth and Lleyton Hewitt joined forces to put Australia on the board, they completed a historic Davis Cup comeback for the host.
Groth tied the Davis Cup quarterfinal with Kazakhstan before a fiery Hewitt swept Aleksandr Nedovyesov, 7-6 (2), 6-2, 6-3, to clinch Australia's 3-2 comeback conquest—its first Davis Cup comeback victory from 0-2 down in 76 years.
More: Australia Wins Doubles To Stay Alive in Davis Cup Quarterfinals
Contesting the first live fifth rubber of a Davis Cup tie in his career, Hewitt took the court with just one singles victory to his credit this year. The 34-year-old emotional leader of the team delivered one of the most rousing wins of his Davis Cup career against an opponent who was playing his third match in three days.
"I love the backs to the wall situation and we had to rally together to get the win,” Hewitt told Davis Cup.com. “You don’t get opportunities like this very often. This is what dreams are made of. The last three or four years, Davis Cup has been as big as any Grand Slam for me personally. When I make my schedule, everything has worked around the Davis Cup and trying to get the most out of myself."
It was the first time all four Australian players played live singles matches in a Davis Cup tie.
The victory vaults Australia into the September 18-20th semifinals against host Great Britain, which defeated France. on the strength of Andy Murray's two singles wins and a doubles victory with brother Jamie Murray at Queen's Club.
Mikhail Kukushkin beat Thanasi Kokkinakis in Friday's opener before Nedoveysov surprised Nick Kyrgios to stake the visitor to a 2-0 lead on Friday.
Australian captain Wally Masur turned to veterans Groth and Hewitt, who beat Andrey Golubev and Nedovyesov, 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-2 in yesterday's doubles setting the stage for the green-and-gold's final charge.
Groth, who holds the ATP record for fastest serve, bombed 29 aces and fought off nine of 10 break points in subduing Kukukshkin, 6-3, 7-6 (6), 4-6, 7-6 (6) to even the tie at 2-2.
“That was amazing. To win a match a live rubber for Australia with the crowd going crazy and to give Rusty the chance to get us over the line in a World Group quarterfinal it is pretty hard to explain and to put into words, actually,” Groth said. “The thing about Davis Cup is that you are not out there playing for yourself. You’re out there but you’re not playing for you, you’re playing for the other guys in the team, you’re playing for the support staff who are there with you in the whole lead up and you’re playing for everyone in this country and that, for me, is what makes it so special.
I was playing for every single person who was out there in the crowd and every single person who was watching on TV."
Hewitt and Nedovyesov split early breaks before the former No. 1 took the tie break.
Playing his 77th Davis Cup match, Hewitt broke serve to open the third set and cruised through the rest of an emotional victory.
Playing for its first Davis Cup semifinal, Kazakhstan came achingly close to making history, but could not close it out.
"Obviously it is disappointing because we were so close to making history for our country, to be in the Davis Cup semifinal, but I have to congratulate the Aussie team. They believed until the end that they could turn this match around and they stuck with their experienced players. It is a great comeback,” Kazakhstan captain Dias Doskarayev said. “I have no regrets about whether we could have done better. Our guys gave 100 percent and they left their hearts on the court and that’s all I can ask for.
“It was very high quality of tennis all weekend. We did everything we could to win this tie.”
In the end, Hewitt, the man who has played and won more Davis Cup matches than any other Aussie, sealed a historic comeback.