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Hewitt on Standby as Playing Captain for Australia vs US

MELBOURNE, Australia — Lleyton Hewitt will end his short retirement to become playing captain for Australia against the United States in the first round of the Davis Cup World Group this weekend, although he was not immediately included in the opening three matches and he's officially on standby.

Davis Cup officials said Hewitt, who retired after a second-round singles loss at the Australian Open in January, will replace Nick Kyrgios, who has a virus.

Hewitt took over as Australia captain at the start of this year.

"We took him (Kyrgios) through his paces this morning and gave him a little fitness test to see how he pulled up from yesterday, but he just wasn't fit enough to play this weekend," Hewitt said.