Can Aust win Davis Cup without Kyrgios?

His captain Lleyton Hewitt has tried to talk him into it - but to no avail.

His mate Alex de Minaur has attempted to bend his ear - but he can't be swayed.

Still the message from the world championship near-miss in Malaga felt glaring enough - no Nick Kyrgios, no Davis Cup.

As the questions resumed over how Hewitt's splendid Australian side, full of spirit, grit and talent, might go one better than being runners-up in the sport's biggest team event, one name inevitably cropped up immediately.

After all, Canada's 2-0 hammering of Australia in the Malaga final on Sunday, courtesy of brilliant straight-set demolition jobs by powerhouses Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime, had brought to life Hewitt's fears that sheer firepower might ultimately win the day.

For in this competition, you need your big guns - but Australia's major weapon, the one explosive singles force guaranteed to instil trepidation into any opponent, has not competed for his country in the Davis Cup for three years now.

Asked if might be able to persuade Kyrgios, who's enjoyed his most successful season headed by a run to the final at Wimbledon, to join the team again next year, Hewitt just shrugged with a weary smile: "I don't know. You have to ask him. I can't try any harder."

Pressed if he'd tried hard to woo him, he added: "Of course. I try and come here with the best possible team we could field."

De Minaur was then also asked if he might try to persuade his friend, and responded: "I have tried, as well. Just wasn't meant to be..."

The frustrating thing for Hewitt must be that last week Kyrgios was playing in Europe in doubles with Thanasi Kokkinakis at the ATP Finals.

Kokkinakis hopped straight from Turin to join the team but Kyrgios had already called an end to his breakout singles season early last month.

He will, however, be playing an exhibition event in Saudi Arabia in two weeks time.

Kyrgios is, of course, very much his own man and will have his own reasons for an absence from the national team which stretches back to since he won his last two rubbers in November 2019.

But it was hard to escape the feeling during an absorbing week's tennis in the Spanish resort, with enthusiastic crowds following the action, that this was exactly the high-octane atmosphere in which Kyrgios revels and thrives.

Along with de Minaur, he might have provided the sort of formidable singles strike force the Canadians sent out. 

Instead, Australia seemed fatally weakened by having to play Kokkinakis, who was, by his own reckoning, rusty, short on confidence and "off the pace" against Shapovalov.

Not that the indefatigable de Minaur, beaten by an inspired Auger-Aliassime, was buying into the idea that Australia can't win the Cup without Kyrgios.

"Look, I think we were very close today. Yeah, just wait until the next time we get the same match-up. Hopefully we can get the win and prove that we can do it."