Australia fought again from the brink to defeat the Czech Republic and attain the
Davis Cup semi-finals in Malaga.
Australia, crushed finalists 12 months in the past, had been staring on the exit door when Tomas Machac beat Jordan Thompson and Jiri Lehecka moved a set and a break up on Alex de Minaur.
However Lehecka was unable to serve out the victory regardless of coming inside two factors of it and De Minaur recovered to say a 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-5 triumph.
That arrange a deciding doubles conflict, and Matt Ebden and Max Purcell noticed off Lehecka and Adam Pavlasek 6-4 7-5 to e-book a last-four conflict towards shock bundle Finland on Friday.
Australia captain Lleyton Hewitt stated: “It was a hell of a match, actually. It was laborious to search out solutions on the market for a lot of the match. Alex gave himself some alternatives to interrupt at instances and wasn’t fairly capable of.
“Lehecka performed implausible. Situations, courtroom all suited him. It was excellent for his recreation fashion. To his credit score, he went on the market and executed. He was very near pulling off a win towards Alex, however Alex simply discovered a manner.
“He got here out and saved us and gave us a chance for the doubles boys to complete it off.
“That was impressive in itself, to come out after riding the ups and downs of both singles matches, and then to be able to just switch it on like they did and put in that kind of impressive performance was awesome.”
Australia, who misplaced to Canada within the 2022 last, stay on target for a twenty ninth crown within the premier males’s workforce competitors and a step nearer to america who’re prime of the pile with 32 titles.
Italy will tackle the Netherlands earlier than Novak Djokovic’s Serbia meet Nice Britain in Thursday’s quarter-final double-header.
Stream all of your favorite sports activities and extra with NOW