Ball to make live Davis Cup singles debut

Carsten Ball will make his own little slice of history at Pat Rafter Arena tomorrow evening, when he plays his first live singles rubber in Davis Cup.

The 22-year-old lefthander and his father Syd, will become the first father and son in Australian tennis history to have each played a live singles rubber in Davis Cup.

Syd Ball played one live singles rubber when Australia defeated Pakistan in Rawalpindi in an Eastern Zone semifinal. The New South Welshman defeating top-ranked Pakistani Saeed Meer 6-4 7-5 16-14 as the Australians won the tie 3-0.

The Australians opted for Carsten Ball ahead of renowned claycourter Peter Luczak as their second singles player for tomorrow’s first day of play against Japan at Pat Rafter Arena in Brisbane.

The big-serving Ball is ranked 115 in the world and brings a perfect 4-0 Davis Cup record to this tie, with his wins in three doubles matches and a “dead” singles rubber (meaning the tie was already decided before the match was played).

But Ball also brings a winning record against Japan having beaten Go Soeda once and Tatsuma Ito twice in their only meetings. He has not previously played tomorrow’s opponent Yuichi Sugita.

Former world No.1 Lleyton Hewitt will begin proceedings at the special late start time of 3pm tomorrow against Tatsuma Ito.

Hewitt beat Ito in their only meeting, on hard court in Tokyo last year.

Japan opted not to risk their highest ranked player, Go Soeda, who only arrived in Brisbane this morning. He was named in the doubles and remains a strong option for them in the reverse singles.

There are tickets still available for tomorrow’s play. The official opening ceremony starts at 2:45pm (AEST) with play scheduled to start at 3pm.

Play starts 1pm Saturday and Sunday with the gates opening at noon.

The winner of this tie earns a berth in the World Group Play-offs in September.

The Australia-Japan tie will be live-streamed with commentary on tennis.com.au starting 2pm (AEST) on Friday.

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