Great Britain knocked out of ATP Cup quarter-finals after epic final tiebreak against Australia
Dan Evans’ heroics sent the tie to a decisive doubles match but Jamie Murray and Joe Salisbury suffered an agonising 3-6, 6-3, 18-16 defeat against Nick Kyrgios and Alex De Minaur
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Your support makes all the difference.Nick Kyrgios and Alex De Minaur collapsed to the court after clinching a 2-1 quarter-final victory for Australia that knocked Great Britain out of the inaugural ATP Cup.
The duo held each other on the ground after winning the final point in the doubles against Jamie Murray and Joe Salisbury in Sydney.
It had been a thrilling match, Murray and Salisbury winning the first set 6-3 before losing the second 6-3 and taking the crowd at Ken Rosewall Arena to a tie-break.
Kyrgios served at 17-16 and Salisbury returned long, but before the win could be given the British challenged whether the world number 29's serve had gone in.
The review showed it clearly had and the unlikely pair fell to the ground.
Interviewed on court, De Minaur said Kyrgios "blatantly carried me out there", but Kyrgios disagreed.
"Not at all, he just needs a bit of guidance," said the 24-year-old. "He just gets pretty down on himself really easily so I keep him positive if I can, especially after his unbelievable singles performance, he just came up a bit short.
"I just brought as much energy as I could. That was probably the most stressful tiebreak I've ever played in my life so I'll probably have a bit of red wine tonight."
The Australian duo were a surprise choice, team captain Lleyton Hewitt sending them in at the last minute ahead of Chris Guccione and John Peers.
Earlier, Cameron Norrie lost the first match of the day 6-2, 6-2 to Kyrgios, before Dan Evans continued his strong return to the game with a hard-fought 7-6, 4-6, 7-6 (2) win over De Minaur.
The Australian survived four match points to force a tie-break, before Evans proved too strong on his own serve and the Australian returned wide to end proceedings.
Australia now progress to the semi-finals, where they will meet either Belgium or Spain.
PA
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