Epic Kokkinakis win and doubles triumph sends Australia past the USA

Thanasi Kokkinakis has played a huge role in helping Australia advance to the semifinals of the Davis Cup.

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The world no. 77 took on big serving American, Ben Shelton, the world no. 21.

Kokkinakis blitzed Shelton in the opening set, only to see his opponent come back strong to win the second.

The third set saw both players serve brilliantly to send it to a tie-breaker.

The breaker was hard fought but it was Kokkinakis who held the first match point at 6-4, both were saved by Shelton and then it was a match point every second point.

Both players held their nerve. At 8-9 with Shelton serving Kokkinakis hit long by just one millimetre.

At 14-14 it was Shelton that finally cracked, the American hit a forehand well wide to give Kokkinakis a match point.

On unlucky 13 shots into the rally it was Shelton hitting long to hand the Australian the match. Kokkinakis fell to the ground in triumph.

It was the sixth longest tie-breaker in Davis Cup history and the 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(14) win in two hours and 17 minutes put Australia in the box seat.

Taylor Fritz came out firing and won 11 of the first 12 points and with one service break he was able to seal the first set.

de Minaur got an early break in the second set only to see Fritz hit back immediately.

At 4-4 Fritz would break again to then serve out the match for a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

In doubles it was Matthew Ebden and Jordan Thompson that surprisingly faced Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul in the deciding doubles match.

USA had the option of using Olympic silver medallists, and former world no. 1’s Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek. They have however struggled since the Olympics.

“Incredible. When we got the break there at four-all, I could have run over the top of the whole bench,” beamed Thompson. “I was wearing my heart on my sleeve, you know, bleeding green and gold.”

“We were hoping to catch the Aussies a little bit by surprise,” sighed Bryan, to which Hewitt countered: “It didn’t surprise us that much, to be honest … I’d seen them do drills during the week.”

The Thompson-Ebden pairing would seal the semifinals spot with a 6-4, 6-4 win.

Australia now faces Italy in a rematch of the 2023 final. Italy defeated Argentina 2-1.

In the other semifinal it is Germany taking on the Netherlands.