Well, that was another superb day of tennis.

Unfortunately for Australia, it was not a successful one aside from the brilliance of Alex de Minaur.

He will take a lot of confidence out of his performance, but for the rest of the Aussies it might be a case of going back to the drawing board.

Thanks very much for being with us today, we’ll be back tomorrow from the Queensland Tennis Centre for the start of the Brisbane International.

Good night.

“Super happy,” María Lourdes Carlé says.

“It is our first time playing together, I trust him, I say lets do it.

“I think we play well, with very high energy.

“I am very happy to share the win with Tommy and I hope it is the first of many.”

Has to be said, the small number of Argentine spectators are going off behind them, making it a bit hard to hear.

Tomás Martín Etcheverry, who only just lost to Alex de Minaur, looked pretty exhausted.

“I lost a tough match in the singles, Alex played an incredible match today,”  Etcheverry says.

“The captain asked me if I minded to play, and I said yeah, of course.”

Tomás Etcheverry has come back in brilliant fashion from his singles defeat to beat Australia’s doubles specialists alongside María Lourdes Carlé.

Matt Ebden, an Olympic champion, and Ellen Perez, a two-time grand slam doubles semi-finalist, were simply outplayed.

Argentina wins 6-2, 6-4.

From 0-40 up, Argentina have forced their service game off Carlé into a deciding point.

And the Argentinians make it count.

The crowd have had their impressive energy sucked out of them at that set back.

He has broken Carreño Busta in the final game of the set to steal it, 6-4.

The match has been going over 50 minutes now, a real battle in the west.

Remember, Tsitispas needs to win this to keep Greece in the tie.

That’s huge for Australia.

Perez was under pressure again on serve, but Ebden nailed a superb volley at the net to seal the game and keep Australia in it.

I’m not certain, but that might have been the first of those game deciding points that Australia has won in this game, let alone this set.

It was vital.

And the crowd knows it too.

Now, can they break?

It’s 4-3 in favour of Argentina with Carlé to serve.

Disaster for the Aussies.

They were so close to earning a break on the Argentinian’s serve, only for Ebden to wildly mishit a winner in the deciding point.

Then, on their own serve, a double fault gave the Argentines the game in their deciding point.

A sucker punch for this Aussie pairing.

The Argentinians claim the first set 6-2, a very impressive performance from both these two players.

Etcheverry is looking very strong, but the late inclusion María Lourdes Carlé is excelling.

Her serve is not quick, but they are still finding the lines and getting the angles.

That’s reflected in the stats – six forehand winners for the Argentines, three backhand winners, both teams have made six unforced errors each.

Given the pedigree of the Australian pair, this is turning into a mighty upset.

It’s the Ellen Perez serve that is causing the issues at the moment for the Aussies.

Both Argentinians are powering the returns down the lines, in particularly Etcheverry, who is moving around and smashing forehand winners with an alarming alacrity.

Argentina leads 5-2 in the first set.

Brilliant returning from Etcheverry, really punishing the serve of Perez and it is first blood to the Argentines.

This has started at an incredibly high level – there was an exchange at the net that blew most of the people watching’s mind.

But despite both teams laying it out there, it’s Argentina with a break at 2-1.

Marija Čičak is clearly not in the mood to play around today.

Perhaps she’s as frustrated with that lengthy delay as we all are.

Anyway, she has just issued a time violation warning to both teams for not being ready to play when she is.

Ruling with an iron fist, the Croatian former player.

-Reuters

While we wait for this doubles clash to start, lets turn our attention to Perth again, where two-time grand slam finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas said on Friday he needs to break out of a rut and start afresh in 2025 after winning just one title in the previous campaign and dropping out of the world’s top 10.

The Greek world number 11, who claimed his only win at the Monte Carlo Masters, has also ended his collaboration with his father Apostolos as his coach.

“I’m looking at kind of reinventing myself,” said Tsitsipas, who begins his season this evening in Perth.

“I felt like I’ve been stuck in a pattern over the last few months. I haven’t been able to kind of unlock the pattern.

“I’m looking for a fresh, new 2025. That doesn’t mean to suddenly just start winning everything.

“It’s just to see a trajectory of constant improvement and improving in all fields in my career, but also in my outside life … I want to have stability in my life,” he told reporters.

Tsitsipas is starting the year outside the top 10 for the first time since 2019 and he hoped that would take some of the pressure off him.

“I don’t think there’s that much pressure when you’re outside of the top 10,” he said.

“Well, probably there is some pressure in terms of like now it’s my opportunity to add on points and get some good weeks going.”

He is due to play Pablo Carreño Busta shortly.

There’s been a big change for Argentina in this mixed doubles, with María Lourdes Carlé coming in in place of Podoroska, who had been down to start.

Podoroska was very impressive earlier in beating Olivia Gadecki but perhaps she is a bit gassed from that game.

Anyway, the players are out there now and we’ll be underway soon.

Jéssica Bouzas Maneiro has completed a fine victory over Maria Sakkari, completing the win in one hour 12 minutes 6-2, 6-1.

That gives Spain a 1-0 lead over Greece over there in the west.

Anyway, while we were on the subject of Nick Kyrgios, he has been busy talking in Brisbane today.

And he hasn’t held back.

The former Wimbledon finalist described the fact that “two world number ones both getting done for doping is disgusting for our sport. It’s a horrible look.”.

Here’s his full quotes.

As someone who has recently spent five days watching it rain at the Gabba, I am aware that I am treading on thin ground here, but surely tennis could do better than wait this long between matches for those people in the stands.

-with AAP

Nick Kyrgios will be getting himself ready for his first match on the ATP Tour since June 2023 over the next couple of days.

He has been drawn to play 21-year-old Frenchman Giovanni Perricard, a massive server very much in the same vein as Kygios himself.

Speaking to reporters earlier in Brisbane, Kyrgios said that following his first practice session with big serving American gun Reilly Opelka on Saturday, he said his wrist was ideally prepared for what was to come.

“Yeah, it felt good. It was definitely a step up returning that serve from the practice court but it was good to go right in the heat of the pace of the ATP Tour,” Kyrgios said.

“He’s got one of the biggest serves. To test my wrist out against that … I play Perricard which is arguably the biggest serve on tour.

“It was good preparation. I actually booked Reilly a week ago not knowing the draw at all.

“I’m thinking about waking up, doing the right things for my wrist, my body, try to get back on the court and stack the days together.”

Jéssica Bouzas Maneiro has taken the first set 6-2 in just under 50 minutes against Maria Sakkari of Greece.

This Australia vs Argentina tie will go all the way.

Ellen Perez, current world number 13 in doubles, will partner Olympic doubles champion and two-time major winner Matthew Ebden for Australia.

For Argentina, it is listed that Podoroska and Etcheverry will both back up in the doubles.