Former Australian captain Wally Masur is backing Lleyton Hewitt to lead Nick Kyrgios out of the tennis doldrums and into the Davis Cup final.
Masur believes the Davis Cup environment and strong team culture that Hewitt has developed is just the tonic for Kyrgios after a forgettable grand slam season for the two-time major quarter-finalist.
In a worry two weeks before Australia's World Group semi-final with Belgium, a dejected Kyrgios claimed after falling to fellow Australian John Millman in the first round of the US Open that he had "no dedication to the game at all".
He also repeatedly clutched his injured shoulder during a quickfire doubles loss with Matt Reid.
But the tennis enigma also said winning the Davis Cup remained his top priority in 2017.
Hewitt has another 10 days to get Kyrgios in the right head space to spearhead Australia's assault in Brussels and Masur believes he will.
"Look, he said what he said in the press and he obviously feels like he can do more," Masur told AAP.
"I think it will arrive at a point where it will come together. To be honest, Davis Cup and Lleyton might be one of the catalysts for that to happen.
"With Lleyton, there's a fairly good camaraderie among the guys. Nine times out of 10 if you walk through the players lounge, all the Aussie boys are sitting together.
"That's probably another good thing that's come out of Lleyton's involvement in Davis Cup, his ability to bring them together.
"To most of them, when they were growing up he was No.1 in the world, or not too far it, when they started playing tennis.
"He's someone they look up to and respect."
Masur, who captained Australia to their last semi-final in 2015, suspects Kyrgios is still struggling with his transformation from promising teenager to instant super-stardom after conquering Rafael Nadal on tennis's most famous stage to roar into the 2014 Wimbledon quarter-finals.
"I believe Nick does actually enjoy hitting tennis balls. There's no doubt about it," he said.
"If you cast your mind back to that afternoon that he beat Nadal at Wimbledon, he seemed pretty happy, an easygoing kid at that point.
"I never saw a guy so relaxed. It just seemed he enjoyed the big stage.
"He wasn't fazed by an opponent like Nadal. It was pretty amazing what he did.
"But that night Pat Cash, who probably experienced something pretty similar, said: 'Nick's world is going to change'.
"And it changed pretty rapidly. His every word was scrutinised, there were a lot of eyes on him. The journey became a little bit different. He's probably still adjusting to that.
"He's had some good results since obviously. He's done well at Wimbledon, we've seen what he can do at Davis Cup and he just got to the final in Cincinnati.
"Davis Cup is good for him."
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