Olympic champions John Friends and Matt Ebden reunite to seal Australia’s emphatic Davis Cup triumph in Sweden, securing a uncommon tie again on house soil.
Stockholm, Sweden, 1 February 2025 | AAP
Olympic champions John Friends and Matt Ebden have reunited to seal an emphatic Davis Cup triumph in Sweden and have a good time their Australian staff incomes a uncommon tie again on house soil.
With Lleyton Hewitt’s outfit 2-0 in a single day within the first-round qualifying tie after the first-day singles in Stockholm, the golden veterans teamed up on Saturday for the primary time since their Paris triumph to win the tie-clinching doubles rubber.
Competing for less than the second time collectively as a Davis Cup partnership regardless of their lengthy expertise, the Perth neighbours and nice buddies rebounded expertly from a set right down to defeat house duo, Filip Bergevi and Andre Goransson, 6-7 (7) 6-3 6-2.
The Aussies advance 🇦🇺
Matthew Ebden and John Friends full a superb comeback to defeat Filip Bergevi and Andre Goransson 6-7 (9), 6-3, 6-2 to maneuver into the following spherical!#DavisCup pic.twitter.com/zkv75XCz5l
— Davis Cup (@DavisCup) February 1, 2025
The final word 3-1 victory – Friends later misplaced a comfort singles towards Leo Borg 7-5 6-4 – ensured final 12 months’s semifinalists eased into September’s second qualifying spherical towards both Belgium or Chile to be performed at a venue again in Australia.
The final house tie within the males’s ‘World Cup of tennis’ to be staged there was three years in the past when Hewitt’s males have been impressed to defeat Hungary in Sydney.
And the possibility to play in entrance of house followers once more in a battle to seal a spot in November’s ‘Remaining 8’ week in Bologna, Italy, left the staff thrilled.
“Belgium and Chile are each tremendous powerful groups, so we’re going to look at that tie, however crucial factor is we have been all right here preventing as a staff to get a house tie in September,” mentioned Ebden.
“It’ll be our first house tie in Australia in at the least three years – so this one was for the staff and to take a house tie again house.”
After Friday’s comfy straight-sets wins for Alex de Minaur and Aleksandar Vukic, there by no means appeared a sensible manner again for the hosts, even in entrance of a vociferous full-house on the Royal Tennis Corridor in Sweden’s capital.
The mixture of the 37-year-old Ebden, a former world No.1 doubles participant, and 36-year-old Friends, as soon as world No.2, needed to gel once more to subdue the 2 30-year-old Swedes.
Goransson, a shock semifinalist within the current Australian Open doubles, and Bergevi earned the one break level of the primary set – repelled by the Aussies – earlier than taking a decent breaker on their third set level.
It simply prompted the veteran Aussie partnership to click on up a gear, instantly incomes the primary break of the match on Bergevi’s supply firstly of the second stanza earlier than actually taking management to interrupt each Swedes’ serve within the decider.
“Each match right here has been a battle, however we simply stored preventing,” mentioned Friends, saluting the noisy group of Aussie followers – the Dundees – for his or her fixed help all through.
Not content material together with his first-ever Davis Cup win alongside Ebden – the pair misplaced their solely earlier rubber collectively seven years in the past – Friends, a current Australian Open combined doubles winner, then even agreed, reasonably nobly, to end up for his first ever Cup singles to supply some leisure for the dispirited house help.
His sacrifice spared the specialists De Minaur, Vukic and Thanasi Kokkinakis any extra put on and tear after their current Australian Open slogs, and for a person who hadn’t performed a tour-level singles for a decade, Friends acquitted himself effectively towards Bjorn Borg’s boy earlier than succumbing in simply over an hour.
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