Dan Evans claimed his best Davis Cup victory to add to a debut success for Jack Draper as Great Britain began their campaign in Manchester with an excellent win over Australia.
Draper’s run to the fourth round of the US Open earned him not just a second Great Britain call-up but a first appearance, with Smith picking him ahead of his top-ranked player Cameron Norrie and former world number one Andy Murray.
The 21-year-old fully justified his captain’s faith, thrilling a 9,000-strong crowd at the AO Arena by breaking Kokkinakis when he served for the match then coming from 4-2 down in the deciding tie-break to win 6-7 (6) 6-3 7-6 (4) after two hours and 52 minutes.
Evans then took to the court against world number 12 Alex De Minaur, the highest-ranked player in the four-team group.
De Minaur has had a brilliant summer but Evans is also in form having won the biggest title of his career in Washington and then reaching the third round of the US Open where he took a set off Carlos Alcaraz.
And he extended his tour-level winning record against De Minaur to 3-0, catching the Australian cold and then recovering from losing the second set to lead 4-1 in the decider.
There were some late nerves as De Minaur responded with two games in a row but Evans got his tactics spot on to complete a 6-1 2-6 6-4 victory.
That gave Britain an unassailable lead against last year’s runners-up, with a top-two spot in the group needed to secure progress to the quarter-finals and with matches against Switzerland and France still to come this week.
After drilling a final backhand winner down the line, Draper pretended to hit the bullseye, a reference to the competitive games of darts that have been keeping the team busy away from the court.
Speaking on court, he said: “There’s nothing better. It was a real battle, massive crowd in here. It’s amazing to play my first Davis Cup tie in the UK in this sort of arena. I’m just so happy to be here and grateful Leon trusted me and put me out here today.”
For most of his long tenure, Smith’s team, based around Murray, virtually picked itself. Greater options have left him with more difficult decisions and he was criticised for his selection at the same stage last year, when Britain made an early exit.
There will have been great satisfaction for the Scot, therefore, in the performance of Draper, who has been kept off court for much of the season by a string of frustrating injuries but carried the confidence of his run in New York into this clash against another 6ft 4in heavyweight in Kokkinakis.
There was very little to choose between them in the tightest of first sets, with Kokkinakis saving a set point at 4-5 and then clinching his second set point in the tie-break.
Draper came up with the perfect response, breaking Kokkinakis immediately to start the second set and looked to be in ascendancy at the start of the decider.
He could not get the break, though, and was in big trouble when he dropped serve at 4-4 before staging a rousing comeback.
Of his selection, Draper said: “Leon told me a couple of days ago. He said he wanted me to be out there and that he believed in me. I prepared well, trained well and only really started thinking about it an hour before I played, when the nerves started coming in.
“I knew I’d played some tough matches at the US Open and I felt really good about my tennis. That helped the nerves a lot. When I got out there with the home crowd and all those people supporting me, it felt amazing. I haven’t played too many great matches this season but I think that was one of them.”
Like Draper, 27-year-old Kokkinakis has been badly affected by injuries through his career, while he has had trouble closing out matches, including in a near six-hour epic against Murray at the Australian Open in January that finished after 4am.
He was left cursing a similar pattern here, saying: “I let my nerves get to me a little bit. Hats off to him, he played some good tennis when he needed to but it’s definitely a tough one, it stings for sure.”
Madrid Open: Nadal roars to victory against De Minaur
Rafael Nadal delighted his home fans at the Madrid Open as he roared to an impressive victory over Alex de Minaur on Saturday.
The Spaniard battled to a 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 victory to earn his first win over a top-20 player in the world rankings since the ATP Finals back in 2022.
De Minaur had beaten Nadal last week in Barcelona, but the five-time Madrid champion was not to be denied this time in front of a crowd which included King Felipe VI along with football stars Zinedine Zidane and Vinicius Jr.
Emerging triumphant from an epic 77-minute opening set proved decisive, with Nadal more comfortable in the second as De Minaur missed an opportunity to become the first player to beat him in consecutive weeks since Novak Djokovic achieved the feat way back in 2011.
Nadal will take on Pedro Cachin in the third round after the Argentine dumped out Fances Tiafoe in three sets.
"I'm super happy to be able to be competitive against a great player like Alex and play over two hours," Nadal said, per the ATP Tour website.
"It means a lot to me and the atmosphere here is just a joke, so I can't thank enough everybody here.
"It still needs time [until I am back to my best]. I think for moments it has been a good level of tennis. I was able to do positive things, but still on and off.
"But I really believe that tennis hasn't been an issue for the last two years. More the physical issues.
"If I am able to play weeks in a row and if I am able to play tennis, then I'm going to see how far I can go and how competitive I could be. But that's not the case yet, just step by step and let's see how I recover."
Elsewhere at the tournament, Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner, playing as the top seed at a Masters 1000 event for the first time, cruised to victory over fellow Italian Lorenzo Sonego to start his campaign in style.
It took Sinner just 69 minutes to win 6-0 6-3 and improve to 26-2 in a remarkable 2024 season so far.
“I know Lorenzo quite well and we have a good friendship off the court, we play Davis Cup together, we practise a lot together,” Sinner said.
“The mental side was a little bit different than it used to be, so I'm just happy how I handled the situation. He didn't play at his best. I think we saw this. I wish him all the best for the rest of the season.”
Progress was harder to come by for Daniil Medvedev as he lost the opening set to Matteo Arnaldi, though the third seed eventually battled through 2-6 6-4 6-4 to book a third-round clash with American Sebastian Korda.
There was a surprise result, though, with Brazilian qualifier Thiago Monteiro ending the fine recent form of Stefanos Tsitsipas with a 6-4 6-4 victory.
Tsitsipas was 10-1 on clay this year going into the match, but the sixth seed crashed to a shock defeat just a week after Monteiro had lost in the first round of a Challenger Tour event in Portugal, marking a rapid reversal of his fortunes.
“Every week you have a new opportunity," said Monteiro. “These past few weeks I wasn’t feeling really good on the court. I was trying to do well at Challengers but it didn’t work.
“I just kept up the hard work, day by day. Even when I was not feeling good and not winning matches, I kept believing in myself, and this week it has paid off.
"For sure one of the biggest wins of my career. I knew it was a really tough match and I tried to just believe in myself all the time."
Sunday’s matches will see Nadal’s compatriot Carlos Alcaraz continue his campaign with a third-round clash against Thiago Seyboth Wild.
Swiatek soars into Madrid Open last 16 after dropping just two games against Cirstea
Iga Swiatek stormed through to the Madrid Open last 16 following a dominant straight-sets victory over Sorana Cirstea.
The world number one dropped just two games as she inflicted a comprehensive 6-1 6-1 rout on her Romanian opponent in the Spanish capital.
Swiatek, who was runner-up to Aryna Sabalenka in last year's event, will play Sara Sorribes Tormo in the round of 16 after the Spaniard defeated two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka.
The Pole is now 26-4 for the season, in which she has already triumphed at the Qatar Open and Indian Wells Open, as she eyes the ninth WTA 1000 singles title of her career.
Data debrief
Swiatek is through to her sixth round of 16 from seven main-draw appearances in WTA 1000 events on clay (85.7 per cent) - the highest percentage rate among players with at least five such appearances since the format's introduction in 2009.
The three-time French Open champion also boasts the best WTA match win rate of any player since 2000 on clay (87 per cent). Overall, only Chris Evert (94.5 per cent), Margaret Court (89.5 per cent) and Steffi Graf (89.2 per cent) boast a higher percentage in the Open Era.
Alcaraz begins Madrid Open campaign with emphatic win
Carlos Alcaraz continued his fine record at the Madrid Open with an emphatic 6-2 6-1 victory over Alexander Shevchenko on Friday.
The two-time defending champion made it 12 straight wins at his home tournament to ensure he will face Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild in the last 32.
Alcaraz was playing his first match on the ATP Tour since March 28 after being unable to compete in the Monte-Carlo Masters and Barcelona Open due to an arm injury.
But he was still able to make a fine start to his clay-court season, breaking serve in the first game and racing to victory in only one hour and eight minutes.
Data Debrief
Sometimes the scoreline can be harsh on a beaten player, but on this occasion Alcaraz was clearly dominant, breaking the Kazakh seven times in the match and forcing 11 break-point opportunities while conceding only three for his opponent.
That allowed the Spaniard to claim a dominant victory despite being broken once in each set. He will now turn his attention to a clash with Seyboth Wild, who battled past Lorenzo Musetti with a 6-4 6-4 win.
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