Spain: Australia’s tennis men defied all expectations by defeating Croatia in a makeshift doubles match and advancing to their first Davis Cup final in 19 years on a nerve-wracking evening in Malaga.

Jordan Thompson and Max Purcell beat the Olympic Doubles Champions to clinch the thrilling 2-1 semi-final victory after additional heroics from Alex de Minaur had saved Lleyton Hewitt’s squad with his masterful tie-levelling singles victory over Marin Cilic.

“It’s been a long time. We’re a very proud Davis Cup nation and I’m very proud of these guys. They deserve to be in the final and in with a chance of winning this thing,” Hewitt remarked.

It was a triumph straight out of captain Hewitt’s gritty playbook as a doubles pairing who had never played together in the Davis Cup were left staring at defeat before rallying to down the formidable Mate Pavic and Nikola Mektic 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 6-4.

The Australians will face either Canada or Italy in the final, with the force now seeming to be with Hewitt’s heroes on November 26. They tied the score in the 11th game of the second set before breaking once again to win the match after 2 hours and 14 minutes in the 7th game of the decider.

Earlier, Alex de Minaur stunned former US Open Champion Marin Cilic 6-2, 6-2 to tie 28-time Champions Australia. Borna Coric had handed Croatia the advantage by defeating Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-4, 6-3 previously in the semi-final.

Cilic, ranked 17 in the world, was undone by 23 unforced errors as De Minaur, the world number 24, avenged a loss to the Croatian when the two countries met in last year’s tournament.

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