Alex de Minaur's dire record against heavyweights Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev counts for nothing as Australia chase an unlikely berth in the United Cup final, Lleyton Hewitt says.
Team Australia will face either Greece or Germany in Saturday night's semi-final in Sydney, with both potential opponents boasting superstar singles players all ranked above the host nation's two spearheads.
Greece's singles players are ranked inside the world's top 10, including 2023 Australian Open runner-up Tsitsipas, who holds a commanding 10-0 winning advantage over de Minaur.
World No.6 Maria Sakkari would also be favoured to beat comeback ace Ajla Tomljanovic in the women's rubber should Greece take out Germany in Friday night's blockbuster quarter-final at Ken Rosewall Arena.
Zverev leads de Minaur 6-1 in career meetings, with triple grand slam champion and former women's world No.1 Angelique Kerber on the comeback trial like Tomljanovic.
With the formidable undefeated duo of Matt Ebden and Storm Hunter relishing the chance of featuring in another potentially decisive mixed doubles encounter, team captain Hewitt is backing the in-form de Minaur to set up that very scenario for Australia.
Not that he needs any more motivation than wearing the green and gold for Australia in front of his home Sydney fans, the world No.12 has the added lure of cracking the top 10 for the first time if he beats Tsitsipas or Zverev.
The 24-year-old's stirring victories over the 10th-ranked Taylor Fritz and world No.1 Novak Djokovic helped pilot Australia from seemingly certain elimination after a first-up loss to Great Britain to the semi-finals with against-the-odds wins over the American defending champions and Serbia.
Hewitt sees no reason de Minaur can't continue his hot run, despite having never beaten Tsitsipas and losing six out of seven against Zverev.
"He'd never beaten Novak before either, so we're looking forward to changing that one, too," Australia's captain said.
The great Rafael Nadal has endorsed de Minaur as a different beast in 2024.
"De Minaur is a player that is very close to the top 10. I don't see him far at all to fight for very important things," Nadal said when asked about the big home hope's Australian Open prospects.
"He has been improving the last couple years. He is able to create more damage on opponents now than before. That's what he needed."
De Minaur shrugged off his galling head-to-head record against Tsitsipas and Zverev and said the entire Australia team can't wait to get back on court to try to make the final of the $15 million event.
"The beauty is we are yet to play in 2024, so I am undefeated in 2024," he said of a confrontation with either of the European big guns.
"It's going to be fun. Happy to be in the semi-finals with this amazing team and I'm enjoying every second of it.
"I'm hoping we're going to be able to fill up Ken Rosewall Arena. Hope it's an amazing atmosphere.
"Love playing there. Had some great memories there. Played some great tennis there. Hopefully this whole team can keep it going."
Saturday's other semi-final features top seeds Poland, with women's world No.1 Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz also unbeaten in singles over the past week, against France.
