Spain, Japan, Australia up 2-0 in Davis Cup WGroup playoffs

Nishioka then upset Illya Marchenko 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5 to leave Japan needing to win Saturday’s doubles to retain its World Group status next year.

It was Peers’s first win for Australia after losing his only other rubber – a doubles match alongside Lleyton Hewitt against United States of America in March.

Australia will now wait to learn the identity of their first round opponent when the draw for next year’s Davis Cup is conducted in London this week.

Nick Kyrgios barely raised a sweat to give Australia the flawless start to the Davis Cup world group play-off against Slovakia in Sydney on Friday.

Young stars Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic gave the hosts a dream start, winning both their singles matches in straight sets on Friday, before the doubles team finished the job.

New Zealand’s Rio Olympic combination of Michael Venus and Marcus Daniell needed just one hour and 14 minutes to thump Pakistan duo, Aqeel Khan and Mohammad Abid Ali Khan Akbar, 6-0, 6-1, 6-2.

Likely to narrowly miss a seeding, the Hewitt-captained Australians are hoping to avoid a horror away tie against a Swiss outfit potentially led by grand slam giants Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka.

“It’s been quite a while now since we’ve had an opportunity to play in a final and I know from experience I’d love these boys to have that experience of going out there and playing for Australia”.

It was then left to the doubles pairing of John Peers and Sam Groth to clinch the tie on the Saturday, which they did by beating the Slovakian pairing of Martin and Igor Zelenay in four sets.

“I’m not like trying to do a Novak at the US Open”, he said. He plays less tournaments and plays really well at them as opposed to me.

“I can’t speak highly enough of a guy like John Millman who hopped straight back on a plane from Germany to get here and put his hand up if something did happen”.

“I mean, I want to play”.

“Rafa has been struggling with his wrist for last 2-3 months, he did not want to take a risk”, Lopez said after his win.

The Australians lost their momentum and were unable to withstand the resilient Slovakians, who made a contest of it with a convincing tie-break victory in the third. “He was slicing and was very comfortable on it and that third set definitely wasn’t easy”. “I think he gets a bit of a laugh from some of the stuff you write and he throws it out there”, said the Australian captain.