Trouble in the Australian Camp Ahead of Australian Open 2019

Australian Open 2019 has got underway but however issues in the Australian tennis team are still not settled. Thanasi Kokkinakis an Australian tennis star who defeat Roger Federer in the second round of the Miami Open last year. He began his career in the year 2011 and he broke into the top 200 rankings in the year 2014. In 2016, his left shoulder was injured. Since then Kokkinakis has been battling with series of injuries. During the 2017 Davis Cup semi-final singles clash against Belgium, the Australia coach Lleyton Hewitt decided to choose John Millman in place of Kokkinakis.

“It’s a bit of a delicate subject, the whole Thanasi Kokkinakis situation, because basically he’s had a falling out with Lleyton Hewitt,” informed the tennis expert Brett Phillips. “If you fall out with Lleyton Hewitt, you’re on the back foot. I know there have been some meetings in Sydney about it this week to try and rectify the situation — they’re at loggerheads at the moment”.

He also referred to the 2017 Davis Cup incident and also mentioned about Millman and Kokkinakis’ quarrel, he continued “It goes back to the Davis Cup, we’re going back not last year but the year before when he was part of the team that lost that Semi-Final and you might remember that John Millman got the nod late. Millman’s practice form had been a lot better, he got the nod ahead of Kokkinakis, despite Kokkinakis having a better ranking, and he basically sulked from there. He wouldn’t actually come out and support the team, he was invited last year to be part of the squad as well and refused to travel with the Davis Cup squad … it’s a bit of a mess.”

The dispute in the Australian tennis team would continue to hamper the performance of Australian in the Davis Cup tournament. As the Australian Open 2019 has already kicked off, Tennis Australia needs to resolve this issue and put things in place as soon as possible.