{"id":5457,"date":"2013-01-31T12:21:12","date_gmt":"2013-01-31T04:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=5457"},"modified":"2013-01-31T12:21:12","modified_gmt":"2013-01-31T04:21:12","slug":"ebden-out-for-davis-cup-singles-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2013\/01\/31\/ebden-out-for-davis-cup-singles-spot","title":{"rendered":"Ebden out for Davis Cup singles spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Matthew Ebden is intent on forcing his way into a singles spot for Australia\u2019s Davis Cup tie against Chinese Taipei starting on Friday.<\/p>\n

The newly crowned Australian Open mixed doubles winner says the singles berths are not settled and that individual practice form will be crucial.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s ever set \u2013 it depends on the guys\u2019 form and their confidence,\u201d Ebden said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone has got confidence in each other\u2019s ability and with singles any one of us could play.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven with this tie there is a good chance that I could start with a singles match on Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lleyton Hewitt and Marinko Matosevic \u2013 Australia\u2019s highest ranked player in the absence of the suspended Bernard Tomic \u2013 remain favourites for the first singles rubbers.<\/p>\n

But Ebden, who reached a career singles high of 61 last year, says he has taken his form to a new level in recent months and deserves to be considered.<\/p>\n

\u201cI needed to be a more complete player and I think I am a lot more than I was last season,\u201d Ebden said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019ve improved a lot. I\u2019m playing well now, it\u2019s just a matter of building match wins now around the year and going into the bigger tournaments.<\/p>\n

Despite his Australian Open mixed doubles win with Jarmila Gajdosova, Ebden said he wanted to focus on singles, but not ignore doubles, to become a \u201chandy\u201d Davis Cup option in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cSingles is really my priority. I don\u2019t have any great passion just to be a doubles player,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I plan to keep up with my doubles during the year; I just want to become a more consistent player in both.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ebden said he planned to use his grand slam victory as a platform to put together a CV which would take him into the bigger ATP tournaments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big reward and it will give me a lot of confidence to win big matches and the big points in doubles and in singles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully it\u2019s the start of a big year. The last few months I\u2019ve worked hard and the level is right up there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m playing well, it\u2019s just a matter of building match wins now.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the South African-born Ebden, Australia should have little trouble adjusting to the quick courts to be used for the tie this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Australian Open courts I think played a bit quicker this year and these are a fraction quicker again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally I like them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The draw for the Asia-Oceania Zone Group One match will be made on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew Ebden is intent on forcing his way into a singles spot for Australia\u2019s Davis Cup tie against Chinese Taipei starting on Friday. The newly crowned Australian Open mixed doubles winner says the singles berths are not settled and that individual practice form will be crucial. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s ever set \u2013 it depends […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5894,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5894"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}