Belgians break Australian hearts in Davis Cup classic

Australia's tennis warriors have suffered Davis Cup despair, falling a set short of completing one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the 125-year-old competition.

A day after overcoming severe cramping to defy Alex de Minaur, unfancied world No.91 Raphael Collignon wore down late stand-in Aleksandar Vukic 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-3 in the deciding rubber to lead Belgium to a pulsating 3-2 second-round qualifying triumph in Sydney.

All up, the tennis ironman spent almost five and a half hours on court to break Australian hearts once more, after Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt — once engaged to Belgium's former world No.1 Kim Clijsters — also featured in crushing 3-2 losses to the small European nation in 2007, 2010 and 2017.

With two bold selection calls from Hewitt, his all-Sydney outfit had looked set to become only the third Australian team in Davis Cup history to overturn a 2-0 deficit.

An inspired three-set doubles win from Jordan Thompson and Cup debutant Rinky Hijikata and redemption for de Minaur in Sunday's first reverse singles rubber had levelled the tie.

De Minaur atoned for a shock first-day flop with a rousing 6-2 7-5 victory over Zizou Bergs to level the tie at 2-2, after Thompson and Hijikata recovered from the brink to pull off a tense 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 6-4 victory over Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen to keep Australia's hopes alive.

Thrust into the deciding rubber after Hewitt opted to rest Thompson following his epic two-hour, 24-minute doubles showing, Vukic took the opening set from Collignon.

But in the form of his career, having arrived in Sydney after taking down two-time grand slam finalist and world No.12 Casper Ruud at this month's US Open, Collignon could not be denied.

While Belgium will progress to the Final 8 in Italy in November, Australia will be missing from the quarter-finals for the first time since 2021.

Hewitt's class of 2025 had been striving to join Harry Hopman's legendary 1939 outfit featuring John Bromwich, Adrian Quist and Jack Crawford that beat the USA in the final as one of only three Australian teams to overhaul a 2-0 deficit.

Hewitt starred in the only other team to achieve the feat, winning the deciding rubber against Kazakhstan in Darwin to pilot his Australian teammates Nick Kyrgios, Thanasi Kokkinakis and Sam Groth into the 2015 semi-finals.

Alas, Australia will need to win two more qualifying ties next year to return to the quarter-finals.

In Sunday's doubles, after blowing four set points from 6-2 up in the tiebreaker, Australia's dynamic duo was in dire trouble in the second set, when Hijikata fell 0-40 down serving at 3-3.

But they staved off four break points to stay in the match — and the tie.

Riding the momentum shift, the Aussies broke the Belgians for a first time in the very next game to storm to a 5-3 lead and never looked back.

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