Australia gets first ticket to Davis Cup semifinals

MADRID, 22 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

This Tuesday, Australia became the first semifinalist of the 2022 Davis Cup Finals that are being held at the José María Martín Carpena Sports Palace in Málaga, after beating the Netherlands thanks to Jordan Thompson's hard-fought individual victories and Alex de Minaur against Tallor Griekspoor (4-6, 7-5 and 6-3) and Botic Van de Zandschulp (5-7, 6-3 and 6-4).

In this way, the team led by Lleyton Hewitt reaches this round for the first time under this new format. The second most successful country in the competition was not among the top four since 2017 and will now seek its first final since 2003 against the winner of this Wednesday's tie between Spain and Croatia.

Jordan Thompson added the first win for his country after a match in which he had to come back. Griekspoor earned two 'breaks' to score the opening set and he continued to be a threat in the second set, which escaped him when he was looking for 'sudden death'. That gave wings to the Australian who put the first point on track with a break in the sixth game of the third and final set.

Next, Lleyton Hewitt's number one, Alex de Miñaur, also had a lot of work to definitively close the tie in favor of the 'Aussie' team against Botic Van de Zandschulp, who also took the lead after winning the first set with a break at 6-5.

However, this 'break' would be the only one that the Australian would fit in the rest of the match. De Miñaur quickly broke the Dutchman's at the start of a second set that he dominated with authority and which gave way to a third equalizer where Van de Zandschulp got the pressure with 5-4 down and serve.