Fresh off hitting a heady new rankings high, Alex de Minaur has made the "brutal" call to sit out a Davis Cup tie for the first time since debuting for Australia almost a decade ago.
After agonising, and much consultation with Australian captain Lleyton Hewitt, de Minaur has opted to put self-preservation ahead of his unquestionable national pride following the most stellar season of the 26-year-old's career.
De Minaur, who has risen to No.5 on the 'live' ATP rankings, will miss Australia's qualifying tie against Ecuador next month.
With the tie being played on clay in South America, de Minaur has reluctantly accepted the evidence of some harsh lessons for playing injured in the past.
"Over the last month I've been in constant communication with Lleyton and have decided that with the issues that my body has given me throughout the last year, it was smartest to just sit this one out," de Minaur said after piloting Australia to the United Cup quarter-finals in Sydney.
"I'm definitely going to be available for the next one and, yeah, I'll be cheering on the boys and super excited for that."
With a chronic hip injury curtailing a splendid 2024 campaign and, heartbreakingly forcing de Minaur out of a Wimbledon quarter-final with Novak Djokovic, Hewitt is fully supportive of his spearhead's call.
"When the draw came out, it was extremely tough," Hewitt said of the Cup qualifiers being staged on February 6-7, the week after the Australian Open final in Melbourne.
"Considering the time of the year, where it is, the conditions, the surface, so many variables, it's really been working with Alex to not put him in a position like he was a year and a half ago, and had to play injured for nine months.
"So (with) the big picture in mind, we've come up with a plan that we think is best for him moving forward."
Not that the "best" call was remotely the easiest for de Minaur.
The Sydney-born, Spain-raised-and-based star is so passionate about representing his country that he has number "109" tattooed on his chest to mark being Australia's 109th Davis Cup representative.
The only ties he has missed since losing to 2025 Australian Open runner-up Alexander Zverev in a fifth-set tiebreaker on his Davis Cup debut as an 18-year-old in 2018 were while sidelined with injury in 2020 and 2024.
This is the first time de Minaur has pulled the pin himself.
"It was a brutal decision," he said.
"Davis Cup has been my priority for basically my whole career.
"To me, there's no greater goal than to be able to lift the trophy one day with Lleyton, with the team, for Australia again.
"So that's been a priority of mine.
"We've gone awfully close for a couple of years (making the final in 2022 and semis in 2023) so my focus is just to keep on improving as a player so I can help out the team when they need me.
"I've got full faith in all the Aussie players that are are going to Ecuador."
With Australian No.2 Alexei Popyrin also making himself unavailable, Hewitt has named James Duckworth, Aleksandar Vukic, Rinky Hijikata, Jordan Thompson and Thanasi Kokkinakis for the tie.
De Minaur 's United Cup heroics have boosted his ranking with the six-times grand slam quarter-finalist provisionally slated to enter the Melbourne major seeded fifth - behind only heavyweights Carlos Alcaraz, two-time defending AO champ Jannik Sinner, Zverev and 10-time winner Djokovic.
