The Australian captain Wally Masur says that it is possible that Lleyton Hewitt and Sam Groth will substitute from Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios in the singles, both who lost against Kazakhstan on Friday.
Hewitt and Groth won in the doubles on Saturday, the Aussies trail 2-1.
“I’ve got to sit down with [coach] Josh Eagle and call [the long time coach] Tony Roach and we’ve got some decisions to make,” said Masur. “Form and confidence is important and I was really impressed with these two guys today. They had great clarity. They knew exactly what they had to do. Our backs were against the wall and it was a really good team effort, so I do have some decisions to make based on the results over the weekend and hopefully we get it right.”
Kazakhstan went ahead when Mikhail Kukushkin and Aleksandr Nedovyesov won on Friday. Kukushkin beat the 19- year-old Thanasi Kokkinakis in straight sets, and then the No. 115 ranked Nedovyesov stunned the 20-year-old Kyrgios, who has reached two Grand Slam quarterfinals.
Kyrgios has said that he was mentally spent, but he would fight hard.
The 27-year-old Groth is currently ranked No. 68 and reached to the third round at Wimbledon, losing in four sets against Roger Federer.
The former No. 1 Hewitt has barely played this year and will retire at the 2016 Australian Open. The 34 year old lost in the first round at Wimbledon, losing 9-7 in the fifth set against Jarrko Nieminen. He is ranked No. 279.
“There is no question that was disappointing for them (the losses for Kokkinakis and Kyrgios),” Masur said. “It’s hard when you just can’t play your best tennis for various reasons so they are disappointed but they were great for these guys on the bench today and they know that if called upon they will be ready to play.”