Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt is hoping to assemble a full-strength Australian team for the World Group play-off in Austria next month despite the tie appearing to count for nothing.
Last week's decision by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to radically overhaul the historic tournament has put a big question mark on the value of the clay-court tie in Graz.
Tennis Australia chief executive Craig Tiley said on Tuesday that, while bitterly disappointed, Australia would still fulfill their Davis Cup obligations for the year.
However they would be seeking further clarity from the ITF.
Victory over the Dominic Thiem-led Austrians would previously have propelled Australia back into the 16-team World Group for 2019.
But Australia now appears to need to take part in February qualifiers next year just to make the newly-announced 18-team competition to be held over a week in Madrid or Lille, France next November.
"We're still very disappointed with the decision but now that it's been made we are going ahead with the tie as normal," Tiley said.
"I'm going to talk to Lleyton next week - he's hoping to get the best team together to play.
"It's still unsure what it means and we need some clarity from the ITF."
Hewitt - who represented Australia from 1999 to 2016 and holds many Cup records - called the ITF decision a "disgrace" and said some of his biggest career highs and lows had come through the Davis Cup's traditional home and away team format.
Tiley predicted Hewitt's passion for the tournament would ensure the Australians - likely to picked from Nick Kyrgios, Alex De Minaur, Thanasi Kokkinakis, John Millman and doubles specialist John Peers would be up for the tie on September 14 to 16 - the weekend after the US Open
"We don't want to approach it as a tie that doesn't mean anything and one thing about our players is that it will always mean something," Tiley said.
"One thing with Lleyton is that he always wants to win and I think there will be motivation to play because it's the last time in this format."
Tiley said he had been contacted by Australian tennis legends Rod Laver and Roy Emerson expressing their disappointment about the changes after 118 years of play.
"It's sad for many of our former greats ... when you look at most of our players who have had success in grand slams, it's off the back of our success in Davis Cup," he said
Tiley was confident the ATP's own new 24-team World Team Cup in Australia from January of 2020 wouldn't be impacted by the new-look Davis Cup.
Share
