Davis Cup: Hewitt thrilled with home tie

Australia has won its last three Davis Cup home ties and captain Lleyton Hewitt has revealed his team is thrilled to compete on home soil again when they host Belgium in Sydney in September.


Friday 18 July 2025
Matt Trollope
Sydney, NSW, Australia
MALAGA, SPAIN - NOVEMBER 21: Australia Team Captain Lleyton Hewitt celebrates a point  in the match between Taylor Fritz of Team USA  and Alex de Minaur of Australia in the quarterfinal tie between USA and Australia during the Davis Cup Finals at Palacio de Deportes Jose Maria Martin Carpena on November 21, 2024 in Malaga, Spain. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images for ITF)

It's been three years since Australia last hosted a Davis Cup tie, something the green-and-gold squad is excited to experience again in September.

The Australian team will take on Belgium at Sydney's Ken Rosewall Arena on 13-14 September, vying for a place in the Final 8 of the competition, a stage set for November in Bologna, Italy.

If history is anything to go by, the Sydney setting bodes well for the Australian team's prospects.

BUY TICKETS: Davis Cup - Australia v Belgium

Australia has won six of its past seven home ties, including the last three in a row; against Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2019 and Brazil in 2020 - both at The Drive in Adelaide - and against Hungary in 2022, a tie also staged at Ken Rosewall Arena.

Australian Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt said it had been a long time coming to compete on home soil, and that his charges were jumping at the opportunity.

"The guys love playing in that stadium," said Hewitt, who will name the Australian team line-up in mid August, four weeks ahead of the tie.

"I know Alex de Minaur, it's his favourite court in the world. So for him to get the opportunity and come back and play at home again, we're really looking forward to it.

"Some of our guys have had their biggest matches there, and their biggest wins.

"It's still a very big challenge, though, against Belgium - we certainly won't be taking anything for granted."

De Minaur, Australia's top-ranked singles player at world No.12, has thrived on that very court, winning the Sydney International in 2019 a year after reaching the final.

He also scored notable wins at the same venue against top-10 star Matteo Berrettini at the 2022 ATP Cup, and the legendary Rafael Nadal at the 2023 United Cup.

And he went 2-0 against Hungary in that 2022 Davis Cup clash, beating Zsombor Piros and Marton Fucsovics in straight sets to set up Thanasi Kokkinakis, who completed a 3-2 win for Australia by beating Piros in the final rubber.

That win propelled Australia into the group stages of that year's Davis Cup finals, where the team went 2-1 in Hamburg to cement its place in the eight-team knockout stage in Malaga. One of those two wins was a 3-0 whitewash of Belgium.

Competing in the Final 8, Australia ultimately reached the final in 2022, and again in 2023, before a semifinal finish in 2024.

It's a stage the team will hope to return to for a fourth straight year when they face Belgium again.

"We'll be doing absolutely everything we need in our preparation," Hewitt said.

"It's straight after the US Open as well, but to get the opportunity to play a home tie, the boys are going to be really pumped."

Tickets to the Australia v Belgium Davis Cup tie are now on sale via Ticketmaster.