Australian tennis great Rennae Stubbs has questioned Lleyton Hewitt’s selections after his Aussie team lost to Italy in the Davis Cup semi-finals. Hewitt led the Australian team to at least the final four for the third year running, but once again missed out on the $4 million prize money and prestigious trophy.

Hewitt was made to pay for his loyalty to Alex de Minaur and Thanasi Kokkinakis, who lost to Jannik Sinner and Matteo Berrettini respectively. The decision to play an injured de Minaur against Sinner came in for heavy scrutiny, and it resulted in the Aussie losing for the ninth time in nine attempts against the World No.1.

Many thought Alexei Popyrin might have been a better option against Sinner considering the young Aussie won their only previous match-up. And speaking on her podcast this week, Stubbs made the same comment.

“I would have played Popyrin against Berrettini,” she said on the ‘Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast’. “Having said that [Kokkinakis] had an opportunity to win. He missed a terrible forehand to lose in the third set.

“But I was thinking maybe even throw Popyrin in against Jannik Sinner. There was no way ‘Demon’ was beating Sinner, absolutely no chance. Nobody is beating Sinner but I would have thrown in a lightning rod who can hold serve. On an indoor court, Popyrin is probably going to hold serve, even against Jannik.”

Lleyton Hewitt’s loyalty towards Alex de Minaur backfired

Hewitt might have been wary of replacing de Minaur because it would have meant benching him completely. The match-ups are based on rankings, with the highest-ranked player on each team forced to play each other.

If Hewitt went with Popyrin against Sinner it would have meant de Minaur couldn’t play against Berrettini because he’s higher ranked, meaning Kokkinakis or Jordan Thompson would still have been used in the second rubber. Either way, it probably would have been a better choice than picking an injured de Minaur against an opponent he’s now 0-9 against.

“It’s bloody tough for all the boys,” Hewitt said after Australia’s wait for another Davis Cup title stretched to 21 years. “They put in a lot of effort to give themselves a chance to be here and come so close again. Thanasi left it all out there. Yeah, there’s a couple points in it. Berrettini played a fantastic match.”

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Lleyton Hewitt wants Davis Cup finals held in Australia

Hewitt once again ripped organisers for the changes that have been made to Davis Cup over the last few years. Kokkinakis said it felt like they were playing in Italy due to the vocal support Berrettini had, even though the finals were held in Spain.

“I think there has been some mistakes made in the last few years,” Hewitt said in regards to the axing of home-and-away ties. “We’d really like to hopefully host the finals as well. We’d like to get the opportunity to put a bid in for next year to host the finals in Australia. I think we deserve that. I have been working extremely hard with the Federation to be able to give us that opportunity.

“It’s frustrating for these guys to always have to come all the way over to Europe every single year to play in the finals. I know how special it was for me to win Davis Cup Finals in Australia. I think we all know how good a tradition our country has in this competition for well over a hundred years. We’ll see where that lands.”