Carlos Alcaraz played a major role in the Davis Cup last year, but has elected to skip Spain’s upcoming qualifier.
Alcaraz represented Spain in both the Davis Cup Finals group stages and knockout rounds in 2024, winning all three of his singles matches.
This also included being part of Rafael Nadal’s retirement farewell in Malaga, as Alcaraz and Marcel Granollers were unable to win the decisive doubles rubber against eventual finalists the Netherlands.
Spain will now look to go again in 2025 for their qualifier against Switzerland, but they will be without four-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz.
Carlos Alcaraz missing in Davis Cup squad announcement as Nick Kyrgios makes his return for Australia
The anticipation is currently gearing up for the Australian Open, with Alcaraz playing a practice set against Novak Djokovic on Rod Laver Arena.
Despite being fit to compete, Alcaraz is not part of David Ferrer’s Spanish lineup that instead includes Pedro Martinez, Roberto Carballes Baena, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Pablo Carreno Busta.
While Alcaraz will be watching Spain’s qualifier from afar, Nick Kyrgios is set to represent his nation for the first time since 2019.
The former Wimbledon finalist last represented Australia against Belgium over five years ago, but Kyrgios had recently spoken to captain Lleyton Hewitt about a return to the team.
Kyrgios will now be part of a four man Australian squad that features Alex de Minaur, Jordan Thompson and Thanasi Kokkinakis, who will head to Sweden for their first round qualifier at the end of January.
Some of the other notable selections include Djokovic (Serbia), Casper Ruud (Norway), Holger Rune (Denmark) and Ugo Humbert (France).
This means that there could be a highly anticipated meeting between Djokovic and Rune, as Serbia take on Denmark in Copenhagen.
How is the Davis Cup changing in 2025?
The Davis Cup is changing its format for the 2025 competition, reverting to more of the traditional home-and-away ties.
This year there will be two rounds of home-and-away ties in the top division, with the Davis Cup Finals group stage being scrapped.
The first round of qualifiers consists of 26 nations, who will play best-of-five rubber ties with the winners moving onto the second stage.
These 13 nations moving onto the second round of qualifiers will be joined by last years runners-up the Netherlands, with seven ties in the same format as the first stage.
After this, the seven winners of those ties will progress to the Davis Cup Finals in its new location of Bologna, Italy.
Two-time defending Davis Cup champions Italy will make up the final eight as the host nation, with a world champion set to be crowned in November.
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