Marinko Matosevic will fly to Perth fresh off a first round loss at the Brisbane International to replace the injured Matt Ebden for the Australian team at the Hopman Cup.
Ebden went down with a calf injury during a three-set loss to Jerzy Janowicz in Poland’s sweep of Australia on Sunday night and will be replaced by Matosevic, as reported by the AAP, who was defeated by American Steve Johnson in Brisbane on Tuesday.
“I’ll take any chance I get to represent Australia,” the 29-year-old said.
Matosevic will arrive in Perth to team up with Casey Dellacqua when Australia takes on the French team of Alize Cornet and Benoit Paire on Wednesday.
The Bosnian-born Matosevic will be forced to extend his travel schedule when he features at next week’s Sydney international.
“It’s been a while since I played my last match,” Matosevic said of the lead-up to Tuesday’s first-round exit.
“I hadn’t played a match for two and a half months.
“(I’m) hoping for a Tuesday start (in Sydney). Made the quarters there last year, it’s a great event. That’s the only negative side, the travel.”
The Aussies are at the bottom of Group B, trailing round one winners Great Britain and Poland, as well as France who lost 2-1 to the Andy Murray led British team.
Earlier on Tuesday, Czech Republic pair Adam Pavlasek and Lucie Safarova collected a 3-0 sweep against Italy and advanced to a 2-0 overall record at the tournament.
The 239th-ranked Pavlasek, aged 20 and yet to feature at an ATP event, stunned world No. 19 Fabio Fognini 3-6 7-5 6-1 while Safarova rolled to a 7-5 6-3 straight sets win over 12th-ranked Flavia Pennetta.
Photo: Tony Ashby/Getty Images.
