Retiring two-time grand slam champion Lleyton Hewitt has been confirmed as Australia's Davis Cup captain.
Hewitt, who helped Australia break into this year's Davis Cup semi-finals for the first time since 2003, will take over from Wally Masur, who was interim captain after Pat Rafter quit the role earlier in the season.
Hewitt faces a delicate task managing Australia's stable of rising talents, which includes the combustible duo of Bernard Tomic and Nick Kyrgios, both of whom have strained relations with the sport's national governing body and the public.
"For me, it's about instilling my experience in these younger guys," the 34-year-old told reporters in Melbourne.
Hewitt's playing career draws to a close after the next Australian Open in January and he retires with two Davis Cup titles in 1999 and 2003 and the record as his country's most prolific singles winner in the team-based tournament.
His first tie in charge will be at home against the United States in March.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here