Lleyton Hewitt has spoken glowingly about the recent progress of compatriot Nick Kyrgios following his runner-up place at Wimbledon, and wants him to play for the national team.
Hewitt is Australia’s Davis Cup captain and has already asked Kyrgios to play for the team earlier this year – a invitation which he declined.
“We’d absolutely love to have him playing for us,” said Hewitt in quotes published by Reuters.
“We’re a much stronger side if he’s available and can play for us, and he’s an option for singles and doubles matches, which is important in this format.”
The two-time Grand Slam champion has congratulated Kyrgios on his achievements this year, praising his performances across the grass-court season.
“Deep down, he’s still pretty disappointed to come so close but not win,” Hewitt added.
“But as I told him, he should be extremely proud of the performances over the last two weeks and throughout the whole grass-court season.
“Everyone knows the kind of firepower and game style that he has and what he’s capable of doing. He just has to go out there and keep believing in himself.”
However, not everyone has been impressed with Kyrgios, as Toni Nadal criticised the Australian’s display in his defeat to Novak Djokovic.
The Spaniard criticised the player’s “understanding of tennis” in a scathing assessment of his performance in the Wimbledon final.
“In the decisive moments, he was unable to control his anxiety that, again, degenerated into constant rebukes to his team as if they were to blame for the undesired paths the scoreboard was taking for him,” he told El Pais.
“The match lacked great brilliance, mainly because there were too many unplayed points. The lack of perseverance of the Australian, especially in regards to maintaining his aggressiveness, revealed the main problem that, in my opinion, his game possesses.
“He has a bad habit of hitting too many balls in any way, basically without paying attention and in a bad position.
“In today’s tennis, due to the speed at which the ball goes, there is no choice but to look for a good position to have good control.
“The great players measure their steps well, seek a good position, and from there, try to hit a good shot and increase the chances of victory.
“Nick Kyrgios, with his messy way of understanding the game, is handicapped not so much by what he does with the ball, but by the way he wants to do it.
“It is very difficult for him to achieve the continuity that requires scoring points. Tennis is a sport of repetition, rather than the spectacular.”
