Alex de Minaur match rocked by 'barbaric' moment as Lleyton Hewitt's complaint backfires

Australia need a historic comeback in their first home Davis Cup tie in three years after Alex de Minaur's match was rocked by barbaric' scenes. While Lleyton Hewitt's Davis Cup complaint backfires on Aussies. De Minaur was expected to put Australia 1-0 up when he opened the Davis Cup tie facing World No.92 Raphael Collignon in Sydney.

Although the Aussie struggled playing in front of his home crowd having been defeated 7-5 3-6 6-3 in a three hour battle. Unfortunately, Australia are needing a huge comeback in the tie with Zizou Bergs defeating Jordan Thompson 7-6 6-4 in the second singles rubber.

De Minaur was quick to brush off the loss as a setback with the Aussie set to play Bergs on Sunday to get Australia back in the tie. But the real drama came when Collignon was left in pain on the floor due to cramp with commentator and former player Todd Woodbridge describing the scenes as 'ridiculous'.

In the opening game of the deciding set, Collignon was writhing in pain due to severe cramp. Although he was not afforded a trainer to come on and help him due to the rules. Woodbridge was furious officials didn't call for a physio during the baffling scenes.

"This is ridiculous," Woodbridge said during Channel Nine commentary. "This is so, so cruel. Get the physio out there, for heaven's sake. This is more important (than the result). This is a health issue now."

Both the tournament doctor and referee came to the court to help the 23-year-old Belgian player, but Woodbridge was not impressed with the image not a good look for the sport. Players are not allowed a medical time-out because cramping is deemed to be the result of a "lack of conditioning". But Woodbridge felt the rule was 'barbaric' and needed to change.

"I've just sent a couple of messages just trying to clarify what the ruling is here because I thought the understanding was that we got rid of the barbaric look of what we've just seen," Woodbridge added. At one stage it looked like Collignon might need to call the match having appeared to walk towards the umpire's chair to shake hands.

Although he stayed out on the court in a bid to fight and it paid off. He was able to fend off six break points to take the three-set victory and help put his country up 2-0 away from home. "It feels amazing. I thought I wouldn't be able to finish," Collignon said

"I tried to play with that strength, tried to go for it, focus on the serve and I don't know how I won. Yeah, crazy. I think when you play for your country there is no pain." Aussie pair Rinky Hijikata and Olympic gold medallist John Peers will look to rescue the tie for Australia in the doubles against Sander Gille and Joran Vliegan to give de Minaur another shot of redemption.

Lleyton Hewitt's gripe over 'disadvantage' backfires

Ahead of Australia's first tie at home in three years, Hewitt was left frustrated at the format of the prestigious Davis Cup. Hewitt has been one of the strongest opponents of the changes that have been made to the competition in recent years, claiming it's been stripped of all its tradition and everything that made it good.

He also recently claimed the Aussies are continually disadvantaged that they rarely get to play on home soil. "To make those changes and also the change of surface too and to continually play the finals (in the same location) ... I feel like it's a massive disadvantage for us," he added.

"The frustration of playing in the same place all the time and just playing away ties, it does get wearing. These boys don't get the opportunity to come back and play in Australia, and I feel like the young kids and people that want to play the sport of tennis miss out."

Unfortunately, Australia didn't use the home court advantage with the nation looking to turn around a 2-0 deficit for only the third time in its history. The two times Australia have won from 2-0 down were in the 1939 final and in 2015.

"There's nothing better than a comeback story so that's the goal tomorrow," de Minaur said. "We're a long way from being done and we can just as easily turn this thing around."

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