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Davis Cup Sunday: Spain tops Group B to finish off the Group Stage week in Valencia following a deciding doubles win with several shortcomings from Australia

by Sports Benches

Oh so close when Alexei Popyrin gave the Aussies a lifeline following his win in the 2nd singles match v Pedro Martinez & if Jordan Thompson won that first game, then we’ve would’ve been on top. But hats off to Spain though on bringing home the deciding doubles win (2-1 series win) that puts them on top of Group B. At least we know that the Aussies are already safe into November Finals week where the Top 8 will battle it out for one trophy also within Spain in Malaga since the Aussies finished 2nd with wins already warranted v France (2-1 series win thanks to our doubles duo of Matt Ebden & Max Purcell) and Czech Republic (3-0 whitewash win).

Gotta say we could’ve won that opening match with Jordan Thompson – who came back off a terrific US Open run lately up until the 4th round – being so close at one stage to try close it out v Pablo Carreno Busta. It’s a shame that his poor serves let him slip away off the back of a really good start before Busta won that opening singles match instead. The final score was 6-2, 2-6 and 6-7 via 7-3 tiebreaker. 

Then as said, Popyrin kept Australia’s hopes alive in the series going into the deciding doubles match for Ebden & Purcell to settle where he continued to be at his best this time v Martinez. His standards continued to soar also coming into the group stage week off his recent career best US Open run (4th Round) with the straight sets win 6-4 & 6-4.

Now we hoped Ebden & Purcell can get the job done v Marcel Granollers & Bautista Agut (again) since we’re always so strong in our doubles performances following a brilliant 2024. Yes, they too didn’t do bad where Ebden & Purcell were so close but not quite enough today unfortunately to hold back the Spanish duo to try bow out on top of Group B. The final score was 7-5, 4-6 and 4-6.

Even though it was a difficult finish to the series v Spain, the Aussies still had a brilliant week in Valencia nonetheless.

Now we have to find who will be our Quarter-Final opponent in the next few days before the road to reclaiming that prestigious trophy begins in late November. Hoping Alex De Minaur will be back fully fit for the right time alongside Popyrin with back up from Thompson as well as our strong doubles combo strikeforce of Ebden, Purcell & John Peers.

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2024 Davis Cup group stage week: Australia now one step to November’s Finals after a 3-0 whitewash win v Czech Republic

by Sports Benches

Gotta say the Aussies were too good v Czech Republic in their 2nd match of the 2024 Davis Cup group stages following a 3-0 whitewash ahead of the 3rd and final series tie this Sunday/Monday AM v Spain.

Glad to hear that Thanasi Kokkinakis was superb once again through the best of three sets in the opening singles game v Jakub Mensik. The first set was easy and although he was unlucky to close out the first attempt during the 2nd set tiebreak, but he found a way though to get things done without too much of a fuss towards the end though by 6-2, 6-7 (2-7 tie) & 6-3.

Going into the next game with Alexei Popyrin, okay, this was a bit different when Tomas Machac had to retire hurt not long after the 2nd singles game was started – in which was so unfortunate to hear.

But a win is a win for the Aussies as they were happy to take it with the series win now already locked in 2-0 before we had one doubles tie to finish off the day featuring Matt Ebden & Max Purcell. The duo have been an unstoppable force as always this time in straight sets 6-4 & 6-2 v Jakub Mensik & Adam Pavlasek.

Now the Aussies still sit on top of Group B with one more series tie left to settle this weekend – they should be good to go for November’s Finals week as long as Spain win tomorrow v France. That way, they will do their absolute best with that Playoffs spot warranted by going all the way against one of the Top sides – especially when playing against one of the host nations over in Valencia. And let’s hope they will bring back Alex De Minaur back in time instead of Popyrin for one of their two singles matches alongside Kokkinakis.

Bring it on to wrap up Australia’s Davis Cup group stage week regardless of result that will hopefully put in a position where they can win that legendary trophy at some point soon enough.

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2024 Davis Cup Group-Stage Week: Matt Ebden & Max Purcell saves the day for the Aussies thanks to their doubles-deciding win over France with 2-1 in this 1st match tie 

by Sports Benches

Gotta say it has been a great finish to the 1st of the three Davis Cup 2024 group stage series matches for the Aussies v France from overnight in Valencia, Spain. Thanasi Kokkinakis got away with a pretty good start when he was simply at the top of his game v Arthur Fils in straight sets, even though this opening singles game wasn’t so easy indeed – 7-6 via 7-4 tiebreak & 7-6 via 7-3 tiebreak. Although in the second singles match, Ugo Humbert was too good for Alexei Popyrin also in straight sets (3-6 & 2-6) which was so unfortunate where Humbert tied with the Aussies at 1-1 apiece for France.

But this tie wasn’t over just yet with the doubles match to settle v the French featuring one of the Paris 2024 men’s double Olympic gold medalist Matt Ebden & one of the new US Open men’s double champ Max Purcell going up against Pierre Hueges Herbert & Edouard Roger-Vasselin. Fortunately, Ebden & Purcell saved the day thanks to our best doubles playing strikeforce as seen regularly across the grand slam tournaments and team group circuit.

They fired off really well where there were some bumps along the way when it comes to the second set but eventually found a way to close out though with the 2-1 series win v France. The final score was 7-5, 5-7 & 6-3 as the Aussies are now onto the 2nd of three series ties in Group B v Czech Republic on Friday morning. Then they will do the best they can possible depending on other results to finish off the group stage weekend on Monday morning v one of the top-ranked sides in Spain.

All they have to do is keep on fighting as another series win would see them one step closer towards locking in that November Finals week spot where the final eight teams will be competing for that one prestigious silverware & no doubt we’d like to have it back this time around after back-to-back recent Final attempts like last year and the year before (in 2022).

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Olympics Tennis News: Super Saturday at Court Phillipe Chatrier with both the men’s doubles final as Matt Ebden & John Peers won gold including the women’s singles final

by Sports Benches

What a Final it was at Court Phillipe Chatrier as Matt Ebden and John Peers are now Olympic champions in the Men’s Doubles Final over Team USA’s duo of Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram out of a tight three set contest. The last time Australia won a gold medal there at an Olympics level was back in Atlanta in 1996 by both Todd Woodbridge & Mark Woodforde. Now fast forward to 28 years, Australia finally got their first gold medal in the 21st century for Tennis thanks to the superstar doubles duo of Ebden & Peers.

It wasn’t the easiest of starts when Ebden and Peers were behind earlier on, even though they had some fair share of battles before Team USA locked themselves in with the 1st set lead. But the game wasn’t over just yet when they began to turn themselves around from the set down & that paid off big time where they kept on going by putting their opponents under pressure until the very end. Now they might have almost lost 3 out of 4 gold medal points but at least that crucial final serve was good enough to see off both Krajicek and Ram for the gold medal win.

Commiserations from Krajicek and Ram whom they played oh so well off the back of a good headstart to stay ahead of Ebden and Peers. They never gave them an easy run for sure but they did however have slipped away at times following the 1-0 set lead where the final set best of ten tiebreak decider has been activated by Australia before Peers had the last say for the final serve for that gold medal point.

And how good was China Qinwen Zheng who finally got her breakthrough that may not be exactly at a grand slam at this stage but at least she won a gold medal at the Roland Garros with the straight sets (6-2 & 6-3) win over Croatia’s Donna Vekic. She too had a powerful first set performance while Zheng took her time well v the improving Vekic as the match goes on before she stood her ground that made her an Olympics champion for China. Sure she has unfinished ahead and that will be winning a grand slam after she fell short to Aryna Sabalenka back in late January of this year at Melbourne Park.

On Vekic, it wasn’t the match she wanted when she fired off not bad on both sets including some progress from the opening set down. But just couldn’t catch up nor found the long run consistency to put Zheng under pressure. She did make Croatia proud though as Vekic collected the silver medal ahead of Iga Swiatek from Poland who won bronze v Anna Karolína Schmiedlová from Slovakia (6-2 & 6-1).

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Olympics Tennis News: Carlos Alcaraz too good for Felix Auger-Aliassime in the semi with Matt Ebden & John Peers also on their way to an Olympic Gold Final in the doubles

by Sports Benches

What a way to finish off Friday here with two brilliant semi-final Tennis matches we’ve just saw tonight at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris coming from Stade Roland Garros where Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz was too good for Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in straight sets (6-1, 6-1) & so does our Aussie doubles pair of Matt Ebden & John Peers (7-5, 6-2) also in straight sets during the 2nd men’s doubles semi against USA’s Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz. Alcaraz will await his next opponent for Sunday’s gold medal match between the winner of the other men’s semi-final in either Serbian legend Novak Djokovic or Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti (another Wimby rematch from last month) later on while Ebden/Peers isn’t done with Team USA just yet going into tomorrow night where they will take on Austin Kraijcek & Rajeev Ram for the Men’s Doubles gold medal match.

It wasn’t Auger-Aliassime’s day today having came here off a great run up until this point including two good wins against Daniil Medvedev in the fourth round and Norway’s Casper Ruud in the Quarter-Finals the other day. However, going up against a seasoned grand slam champ is never easy to say unfortunately and that proved too good to be true other than some early head starts v Alcaraz. His time isn’t done yet with the Bronze Medal match tomorrow to hopefully give Canada another medal against whoever loses the other semi final in either Djokovic or Musetti. Looking at Alcaraz now, he’s simply unstoppable – that’s all! He too never looked out of place having dominated all two sets en route to an Olympics gold medal Final. Looks like it’s going to be another round of Alcaraz v Djokovic if Djokovic can win v Musetti again later on as the young Spaniard would love to win another major honour at the same Court Phillipe Chatrier all in the one year this time for gold.

And how good was Ebden and Peers on what has been an unreal performance to hold off Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz in straight sets. That first stage was really close where they both found a way to get out unscathed and although they had a few bumps along the way with the 1-0 lead but at least both Ebden and Peers took their time well to wrap all things up for the semi-final win. Hard luck to Paul and Fritz by the way who weren’t far off the pace of Ebden and Peers throughout the opening set but struggled mightily to stay in the game during the set, even though a couple of late saves wasn’t enough to warrant them a big turnaround from there. Now Ebden and Peers are one stop closer now to emulating “The Woodies” pair of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde from Atlanta 96′ if they can get this done tomorrow & Australia is surely right behind them.

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Tennis: Australia’s 2024 United Cup campaign has come to a close as their semi opponents Germany have eventually swooped the trophy v Poland in Sydney

by Sports Benches

Oh so close but what a run though by the Aussies after they were unfortunately eliminated from the United Cup semi-finals in the early hours of Sunday morning by Germany, having lost the mixed deciding doubles match 1-2.

Ajla Tomjlanovic fired off really well in the first set, but couldn’t find a way to kick on and hold Angelique Kerber back who was amazing from the set down to bring home a two-set win at the tiebreak (6-4, 2-6 & 6-7 – 7-9 tie). Meanwhile, Alex De Minaur gave the home fans so much hope to keep that run alive. He too bounced back from that close opening set loss with the win v Alexander Zverev (5-7, 6-3, 6-4) to level the semi-final series at 1-1 for Australia where his individual brilliance on the court will see him being ranked World No.10 in the ATP ladder next week. Let’s hope he can have the best Australian Open campaign yet starting next Sunday.

The tables have then turned on Storm Hunter & Matt Ebden to bring it home against Zverev again & Laura Siegemund for a spot to face Poland in the Final who defeated France the other day in a 3-0 whitewash. Now this was such an unreal deciding mixed doubles tie to watch, even though it did go past midnight. They all won each set in the first two (Germany in Stage 1 & Australia in Stage 2) before it went all the way through the best of 10 as Zverev’s decision to stay on has paid off for Germany that broke the hearts of the Aussie team & their fans itself on home turf at Ken Rosewall Arena. The final score was 6-2 – 2-7 tie, 7-6 – 7-2 tie & 13-15.

And speaking on Team Germany, they too have went on to become this year’s United Cup Champions after USA. Yes, these series of finals ties v Poland did end up going just past midnight but gotta say that Zverev has saved the day once again. 

Now He almost lost the match and even the final at one stage by Hubert Hurkacz after Iga Swiatek was too for Kerber (6-3, 6-0) earlier in the evening before he kept his country’s hopes alive going into the championship-winning doubles decider after three hours of play (7-6 with 7-3 tie, 6-7 with 6-8 tie & 4-6). Not only he and Siegmund has played really well right through the every end v Swiatek and Hurkacz again, but they too found both the finish line & the United Cup trophy via the final set tiebreak (4-6, 7-5 & 4-10).

All that’s left to come this week is the Adelaide International, Kooyong Classic, Women’s Hobart International & Men’s Auckland ASB Classic in New Zealand before the main event arrives for the Australian Open at Melbourne Park that will take 15 days beginning on Sunday.

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Tennis: 2024 Australia United Cup team performance in Perth review ahead of the 2nd semi-final this Saturday in Sydney 

by Sports Benches

Well, Australia has done extremely well so far despite the opening tie loss v Great Britain last week (29th December). But we got our strong doubles pair of Storm Hunter & Matt Ebden who continued to give us hope all along. Speaking of hope/luck, things ended up our way after USA defeated Great Britain on the 31st December before the Aussies got away on top of Group C a few days back also with the help of Hunter/Ebden thanks to a deciding doubles match win also v USA.

There’s one more match to settle though before the chance to fly into Sydney for the remaining knockout rounds (semi-final & final) this weekend when it comes to the Quarter-Final & that was a tough one to look out beforehand last night v Serbia.

Fortunately, Alex De Minaur reigned supreme in the best of challenges v Novak Djokovic in straight sets while Ajla Tomjlanovic has secured their early bird flight ticket before Hunter & Ebden secured a 3-0 whitewash that sums up a brilliant way to wrap up their performances at the heart of WA in Perth. Now the Australian United Cup team is on their way to Ken Rosewall Arena in Sydney now ahead of the 2nd semi-final tomorrow v Greece or Germany. They are both strong contenders alongside Poland now that the defending champs USA have been eliminated after they were unable to finish off as the best 2nd placed teams in the Perth group. Let’s hope our strong team performances (Davis Cup & Billie Jean Cup not last year’s run) off the back of 2023 will help them go one better towards winning that United Cup trophy on home soil by the end of this weekend.

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Matteo Arnaldi’s excellent 3rd set response v Alexei Popyrin & Jannik Sinner being too good for Alex De Minaur has secured Italy’s Davis Cup title since 1976

by Sports Benches

It’s not the day the Aussie Davis Cup Team wanted to bow out with another runner-up finish this time to Italy, but it was still a great run again nonetheless where they showed some fight by staying on right through the very end during Finals week in Malaga, Spain. We didn’t have a great start v Czech Republic but Alex De Minaur and the strong doubles pair of Matt Ebden & Max Purcell has turned things around from 0-1 to 2-1 that saw them live another day onto the semi-finals v Finland after they shockingly knocked last year’s champs Canada out of the tournament.

Yes, that semis performance was easily good enough without the need of a doubles match following a 2-0 whitewash win v Finland as the Aussies go through to the final for the second straight year. They needed that prestigious trophy so bad having last won it back in 2003 on home soil v Spain at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. But coming back again this time v the Italians after their big win in the other semi-final from Saturday v Serbia, we unfortunately fell short once again fair & square with a 2-0 loss where Italy set the benchmark higher ahead of everyone & they too deserve to win the Davis Cup Trophy for the second time since 1976.

Oh so close when Alexei Popyrin fought back from the opening set down but fair play to Matteo Arnaldi who responded really well to nail him down during the 3rd set drag race. And Jannik Sinner has unleashed his A-game in the 2nd singles tie after he blew Novak Djokovic away where Alex De Minaur just couldn’t grasp any of his weaknesses all along. If De Minaur or Popyrin won their own games, we could’ve seen our strong Doubles team back in the final tie decider to maybe outmuscle them towards the end there.

Italy has some excellent talent as they hope to see Sinner and/or Arnaldi go all the way in the next few grand slams starting with the annual Australian Open at Melbourne Park in January. Meanwhile, as said, Australia should keep on working that saw them work their way through to the big Davis Cup Final over the last two years. You never know as the Aussies can continue to be at their best when it comes to the World Cup of team Tennis & surely they will finally win back the Davis Cup next time around sooner rather than later.

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Australia fell short on their return to the Davis Cup Final by first-time Champions Canada but proud of fighting spirit & hard work does after a great 2022 of Tennis

by Sports Benches

It wasn’t Australia’s day today when they returned to the Davis Cup Final scene for the first time in 19 years that went way back to 2003 – where Australia last won their title for the 28th time on home soil v Spain. They came here with fighting spirit orchestrated by Lleyton Hewitt as Team Captain, having never gave up along the way after their wins beforehand v Netherlands (QF) & Croatia (Semis). 

However, we have to credit Canada with the breakthrough moment they deserve – especially when they have a bright & an elite young line-up. But we all have to move on as Australia has to keep building on the good work they’ve got right now, so they can come back again hopefully next year & go one better this time.

We’ll start with the first singles tie between Thanasi Kokkinakis v Denis Shapovalov where neither of them have yet to register a win so far in this year’s Davis Cup Finals, but one of them will do so in the end. It turns out to be Shapovalov who was too good for Kokkinakis in straight sets – 6-2, 6-4. For Kokkinakis, his first set spell was a lot to be desired. Although he did show some fight after break in a bid to stay in contention, but it still wasn’t enough to hold off towards a 3rd set decider.

Then we turn our attention to Alex De Minaur v Felix-Auger Alliasime in the next singles match – as the moment of truth has arrived if Australia will bring out a doubles rubber & go one better to retrieve the Davis Cup trophy – or will be Canada as first time winners 2-0? Let’s find out as this time it was a very competitive opening half spell in the 1st set by both players before Auger-Aliassime pulled off the other half easily, while De Minaur did the best he can to keep Australia in the race and lead into a 3rd set lifeline after the break. 

In the end though, Auger-Aliassime escaped a late threat from De Minaur that not only sealed another singles win in straight sets but also gifted Canada the Davis Cup trophy for the first time. The final score was 6-3, 6-4 – with no doubles match required following Canada’s 2-0 whitewash in the series final v Australia.

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