3. Last chance to see grass tennis in 2016
When Tennis Australia announced that their Davis Cup tie against Slovakia would be held on grass, it was a lovely surprise to many old school tennis fans. Seeing tennis on grass in September isn’t a regular occurence, and that’s what will draw attention to this tie. Captain Lleyton Hewitt put together the strongest team possible for this time, with Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic in the singles, and Sam Groth with John Peers in the doubles. Miloslav Mecir didn’t have that much freedom in choosing of players. Slovak No. 1 Martin Klizan refused to travel to Australia, because of health concerns, and Lukas Lacko, who reached round of 32 at Wimbledon didn’t come either. Slovakia will have to make do with the team of Andrej Martin, Jozef Kovalik, Norbert Gombos and doubles specialist Igor Zelenay.
Both Kyrgios and Tomic reached round of 16 in Wimbledon, but they went out early in US Open. Despite the fact that Kyrgios had to retire from US Open, he shut down all the question marks about his fitness and claims to be match-ready. Jozef Kovalik is going to be the team No. 1 for the first time just a couple of weeks after having his grandslam debut at the US Open. Kovalik played a solid Wimbledon, but clay is his best surface. He reached quarterfinals of a clay Challenger last week, which will be a huge change for him, playing on grass against Tomic just a week later. Andrej Martin is mainly a clay court player and with his style of game, Kyrgios nor Tomic should have much trouble getting the win. However, Martin does have a leading head-to-head against Kyrgios, winning their only meeting in Helibronn 2014.
