Nick Kyrgios’ Sore Collarbone Knocks Out Australia From Davis Cup 2019

World Number 30, Nick Kyrgios did not play the Davis Cup quarter-final rubber against Canada due to his collarbone injury (which has been bothering from Laver Cup 2019). Consequently, he pulled out from the Davis Cup Finals 2019 and later his nation, Australia exited from Madrid’s event.

US Open 2018 quarterfinalist, John Millman replaced injured Kyrgios in opening rubber. “He got injured last night,” said Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt. “We didn’t really have a choice. He couldn’t play. Earlier today we found out. So Johnny had to step up to the plate. He (Kyrgios) had a collarbone injury.”

“I think it was similar to what he had at Laver Cup time. That’s just the way the cards fell. It’s been pretty tough I guess trotting back out the last three nights as well. To Johnny’s credit, he went out there and left it all out on the court,” Hewitt added.

During the first two ties, Nick Kyrgios was sublime. The big-server smacked 34 aces this week, and it was his first appearance on a professional tennis court since the Zhuhai Championships in China, where he called off his Asian Swing due to his shoulder and collarbone issues.

With Kyrgios’ absence, the Australians lost their quarterfinal tie to the Canadians. Australia went down 2-1 in the tie, with Vasek Pospisil winning the singles match against Millman and later, Pospisil and Denis Shapovalov collected his doubles match win. Alex De Minaur could edge out Shapovalov to give Australia a victory in the quarterfinals of Davis Cup 2019.

“I was expecting to play Nick. I was expecting to play him until the hour before the match, I think it was one hour before when the captains nominate the line-up,” Pospisil said. “I was like ‘oh well, OK, that’s surprising’. And then I just, you know, digested it for five minutes and then went back to getting my racquets ready.”