Australian captain Wally Masur chose 18-year-old Thanasi Kokkinakis to play against Lukas Rosol of the Czech Republic for the first singles rubber on Friday. Masur could have played the world No. 69 Sam Groth, but chose the No. 133 Kokkinakis who has been playing well this year.
In February, the teenager qualified for Memphis, Delray Beach and Acapulco. At the Australian Open, he upset Ernest Gulbis in the first round and then lost to Groth in five sets in the second round. "Thanasi was right in the mix when they were playing single sets against each other. He was right there, extremely competitive and we just looked at that as a positive and said, 'We can share the workload, we can do this as a team as opposed to one or two players playing three days in a row,'" Masur told the DavisCup.com.
"We can have a fresh doubles team [Lleyton Hewitt and Groth] and on Sunday we can have a look at all the match-ups and how it’s all gone and see who’s fit and who’s strong."
Kokkinakis faces Rosol, who is ranked No. 31, and Bernard Tomic, who is ranked No. 38, will play No. 45 Jiri Vesely on the opening day of the tie.