Matt Ebden hasn’t given up hope of taking his place for the rest of the Hopman Cup after a calf injury forced him to withdraw from the mixed doubles in Australia’s loss to Poland last night.
The West Australian was in sensational form against former world #14 Jersy Janowicz, leading one set to love and serving for the match at 5 – 4 in the second when injury struck.
“I just tweaked my calf running forward, I think the 15-all point,” Ebden said.
“Hopefully it’s not serious. I can still move a bit, so it’s a good sign that it’s not too bad.
The 27 year old called for a medical timeout after the second set and bravely played on in the third, refusing to blame the injury for the loss.
“In the last few days it’s something I’ve been having worked on.
“But it kind of scared me a bit. I heard a little click in my leg. It makes you panic a little bit. But hopefully it’s fine.”
He will have further medical treatment today and if there is no serious damage is a strong chance to play on Wednesday,
With a busy summer of tennis ahead, no risks will be taken withe injury, and the last thing he wants is to carry a soft tissue injury.
However playing in front of his home crowd is something that the West Aussie values very highly and until medical staff says he can’t play he refuses to rule himself out.
A late call up to replace Nick Kyrgios, Ebden has only just come back from an injury interrupted 2014.
For the first hour of the match he played like a top 50 player, controlling the match with a powerful serve and volley game.
He played almost flawless tennis in the first set with just five unforced errors.
Earlier in the evening his partner Casey Dellacqua fell in straight sets to world number 6 Agnieszka Radwanska
“I had some good stuff tonight, and then there was some stuff where I set the point up and didn’t execute the best,” Dellacqua said.
“Hopefully as matches go on, that starts to improve.”
“I can go out for the next two days and work on finishing balls or different shots.”
There was plenty to like about Dellacqua’s performance against the former world #2.
She battled hard but couldn’t produce her best when it was needed most.
“It was an extremely tough match first up, but I gave what I had.”
The 19 year old was belittled with 19 unforced errors in the first set.
“Obviously it wasn’t good enough to beat someone like Radwanska,” Dellacqua said.
“I haven’t played for a couple of months, so it’s good to find my feet.”
Poland won the mixed doubles 8-4 after Ben Mitchell replaced Ebden.
Australia’s next match is against France on Wednesday night.