By David Polkinghorne
Bernard Tomic's commitment to the Australian Davis Cup team is under fire, but Davis Cup hero Sam Groth says there's no doubting the commitment of world No.15 Nick Kyrgios.
Groth adds Nick Kyrgios thrives in the team environment and that's when he plays some of his best tennis.
Sam Groth says Nick Kyrgios is excited about Davis Cup.Credit: Getty Images
Kyrgios and Groth were part of captain Lleyton Hewitt's four-man team to face the Czech Republic in Melbourne starting Friday, along with Jordan Thompson and John Peers.
Tomic made himself unavailable for the tie as his family's battle with Tennis Australia continues, which prompted Hewitt to question Tomic's commitment to the team.
Ironically, Tomic was questioning Kyrgios's commitment a year ago when injury ruled Kyrgios out of Australia's tie with the USA.
Groth revealed the Canberran has been the most active player on the team's WhatsApp group chat and that highlighted his dedication to representing his country.
The 29-year-old has been part of the Davis Cup team since 2014 and helped Australia get back into the World Group when he and Lleyton Hewitt won their singles against Kazakhstan in the quarter-finals in 2015.
Groth said Kyrgios's energy made him a great teammate.
Kyrgios will lead the Aussies after overcoming a knee injury that hampered him during his unsuccessful Australian Open campaign.
"He's great, around that environment he gets pumped ... we've got the Davis Cup group chat and he's very vocal on that about how excited he is to be part of that team," Groth said.
"When he gets around that positive team environment that's when he does some of his best work.
"All the guys are pretty active on it, but he's one of the most active and it's good to see he embraces that team environment and you can tell it means a lot to him."
Groth was expecting Kyrgios to have a big year in 2017 because the world No.15 was starting to mature.
He said Kyrgios wasn't the only young man to struggle with maturity and felt it was tough to grow up in the limelight.
But he predicted the controversial youngster was on the verge of something big.
"I think anyone who's 18-19 in the limelight might not seem that mature, I think myself included," Groth said.
"Probably at that age I wasn't the most mature person going around, but he's got the world watching him so everyone sees it happening first hand.
"But now he's 21 getting a little bit older he'll start to understand what's right and wrong and he's going to come of age and do great things.
"The public sees what they see on the camera they don't necessarily see everything that happens behind the scenes as well, you see the stuff that plays out in public and that's about it."
Groth was excited to be part of Hewitt's team and said he always marked the Davis Cup ties in his calendar.
This year he was especially keen to get the call-up from Hewitt because, like Kyrgios, he felt the Aussie team was going somewhere.
"It's always a big part of my schedule and I enjoy the chance to pull on the green and gold," he said.
"I'm excited about it and we've got a team that can really do some great things over the next couple of years if not this year.
"I've had some good results and I played some of my best tennis, but for me I love getting out there in that environment.
"I grew up playing team sports and for me the Davis Cup is a chance to get in that environment and we don't get that much of an opportunity to do that stuff in tennis so for me I love that."
DAVIS CUP ROUND ONE
Australia v Czech Republic in Melbourne, Friday-Saturday. Live on Prime7.