UNITED CUP

December 28, 2022

Sam Stosur

Alex De Minaur

Ajla Tomljanovic

Jason Kubler

Zoe Hives

John Peers

Maddison Inglis

Team Australia

Press Conference

STEPHEN FARROW: Unfortunately Nick Kyrgios has withdrawn from the event. He was practicing yesterday. He's got a few injuries that he's dealing with right now. He wants to give himself the best opportunity to be ready for the Australian Open, so he's going to take the next couple of weeks off to rest. Just wanted to get that out there.

What that means is Alex becomes the No. 1 Australian player on the men's side, Jason Kubler becomes the No. 2. So Alex will play tomorrow night. There is a possibility we could bring another Australian male player into the squad as a backup, and we're looking into that right now. If there's any update on that, we'll let you know.

With that, we'll bring the Australian team in.

THE MODERATOR: I'll throw a question to Sam as the captain. How is it going so far?

CAPTAIN STOSUR: It's been good. Obviously had some interesting moments, but look, I think we're all here, we're all really keen to get out on the court and do our best in every single match that we all get to play.

I think, yeah, everyone is excited to kick off the year here in Sydney. Looking forward to it. Should be good.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Alex, with Nick being out, that's a blow for the team, what does that do for the draw? Do you play Rafa? Do we know what's wrong with Nick?

ALEX de MINAUR: Well, we've all just heard. Ultimately we just are going to get ready. I think we've got a great team and we're all going to be out there doing our best.

Ultimately the only thing it changes is matchups, and that's about it. We're all happy to be here. There's a great team vibe, great team spirit. It's going to be exciting to be able to go and represent Australia.

Q. Sam, when did you hear about Nick, and what was your reaction to that? Was he here already?

CAPTAIN STOSUR: He was here. We literally turned up 10 minutes ago, pretty much the same time as you guys.

Obviously news to all of us. Like Demon said, we just move forward now. We're all happy to be here and keen to get out there. I think now that's out there and, yeah, we move forward with the placings of the team and do our best on the day.

Q. Have you spoken with Nick?

CAPTAIN STOSUR: No, I haven't.

Q. Sam, does Alex play Nadal now? That was one of the big matchups people were looking forward to. Is Nick's summer in doubt? Do we know that much?

CAPTAIN STOSUR: I'm not going to speak to Nick's summer. I'm going to leave that for him.

But, yeah, Alex moves into the No. 1 position, Jason No. 2. Yeah, they're going to play the 1 and 2 matchups. It will be Alex against Rafa now, which will be exciting.

Q. Alex, how do you feel about that matchup?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, for me it's a great opportunity. I've got two great matches. I'm playing now Cameron Norrie and Nadal obviously. It's a great test for me. I'm excited to put myself out there. It's going to be great to play on home ground, in front of friends and family, hopefully an electric atmosphere.

Hopefully we can get it going.

Q. Alex, you've had some great results here at Ken Rosewall Arena. How good is it to start the season here?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, it's a beautiful court, a beautiful place to be. Love being back here at home.

I think it's even better to be here in a team environment, team event. We've got a great team. I think we're all just happy to be here.

Hopefully I can show around everyone how beautiful Sydney is (laughter), which they don't need convincing, by the way.

Q. Ajla, you're Australia's number one ranked female player. Does that bring a bit more attention or pressure?

AJLA TOMLJANOVIC: I mean, if Ash was still playing, I wouldn't have that spot. I think we're all very much aware of that.

She's not here, so it's nice to have that expectation. I'm trying to channel it in a positive way of not putting extra pressure, but just enjoying the moment.

I don't want to fill her shoes, but even a quarter is fine (smiling).

Q. Sam, are you surprised that you didn't speak to Nick personally about the decision?

CAPTAIN STOSUR: Look, there's been lots of conversations I think back and forth, with Lleyton as well. Unfortunately his flight was delayed so he can't arrive until tomorrow morning, but there were plenty of people involved in the decision. Yeah, that's just the way it worked out.

Q. As somebody that is so passionate about Australian tennis, is there a feeling of somewhat disappointment that Nick couldn't come into this team environment that the other players have spoken so glowingly about and experience starting the year like this?

CAPTAIN STOSUR: Sure, I mean, he was here until just moments ago, so...

Look, everyone was excited to be on the team, get through this week together. But I think, yeah, like we said before, now we move forward. We've got a great team. We have seven players here, maybe someone else coming in now, who are more than capable of filling the places out there on court. I think that's what we've got to now move forward with.

This is our team, and we look forward to each match, doing everything we can to try to get through, yeah, enjoy ourselves.

Q. Alex, it's well-documented with Davis Cup and Nick. How do you feel personally about this news?

ALEX de MINAUR: I think it would be great if we just talk about this great team. We're all here, we're all happy to be here. We're about to play an exciting new event, something new for all of us, the United Cup. Let's talk about that. It's exciting. I think everyone here is excited to play.

You know, we're just going to have fun. It's a great team around us. We're just happy to be here.

Q. (No microphone.)

JASON KUBLER: I'm very excited. Luckily, like this year, I was able to play Davis Cup for the first time. So I sort of had a little taste of team tennis. I really enjoyed it. Obviously we had a great result in Malaga as well.

The team events are an exciting time. I'm excited for a new event like this. It's good that I'm able to play a couple matches, as well.

Q. A few of the others have spoken about how good it is to see Novak back in the country after last year. Your thoughts on him, how do you think he will be received by the Australian public this year?

ALEX de MINAUR: Yeah, it's great to have him back. Obviously as any athlete, you want to be competing against the best in the world. It's good to have him back.

Yeah, ultimately as an athlete you don't want to be winning matches when the best in the world aren't playing. So it's great to have the competition back, great to see him back.

I think Australia will be happy to see him back.

Q. Jason, good timing to have got that new watch. There's always a lot of attention on team tournament play in Australia. How excited are you to play in the spotlight?

ALEX de MINAUR: Why aren't you showing off the bling (laughter)?

JASON KUBLER: I'm very excited to play. I had a really good preseason. I was actually really looking forward to this event and hoping that I could play.

Yeah, super excited I'm going to be able to go out there. I don't think I've played an actual match out there before. It will be kind of cool. I was able to watch Demon in Sydney this year in Davis Cup. That was pretty crazy. Hopefully I can do something like that or just have a good match like that.

ALEX de MINAUR: Good job (laughter).

Q. Sam, is this still a team that can seriously compete for this title? That is your intention, to win the matches, go deep?

CAPTAIN STOSUR: Oh, absolutely. We've got amazing players on this team. Alex is one of the best players in the world. Kub has had an incredible year as well, qualifying for a couple of slams. As far as the men's side of this team goes, we're in very capable hands still.

I am not concerned that our chances are diminished greatly or anything like that. We're out here to do everything we can possible to try to win this competition.

No, it's not going to be easy. There's many great players here. But we're ready to go and we're going to give it everything we've got.

Q. (No microphone.)

CAPTAIN STOSUR: I'll put my hand out to the team (smiling).

Yeah, no, absolutely. When I first signed up for this, I was coming here as a player. Co-captaincy is just a relatively new spot for me, so I'm trying to enjoy both roles.

But absolutely we'll be keen to get out there and play some matches if possible.