Australian Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt says the unique personalities and playing styles of Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic can bring a whole new wave of young fans to tennis.

Both made headlines for the wrong reasons at the US Open earlier this month, when John McEnroe had a go at Kyrgios’ on-court demeanour.

Meanwhile, Tomic was fined $US10,000 for an “out of character” foul-mouthed outburst at a fan, but Hewitt said the unique young Aussies “can do great things for … the sport of tennis”.

“You look at Nick and he’s kind of an NBA basketballer playing tennis and that brings a whole other lot of kids that want to come and play tennis,” he said.

“And you’ve just got to use it in the right way but I see these guys doing a lot of kids clinics behind the scenes and they’re fantastic.”

Kyrgios admitted to being hurt when McEnroe said he should “do something else” if he did not want to play tennis, but Hewitt said the 21-year-old did not let it get to him too much.

“I think he handles it OK. He comes out here and he does his thing. He’s in his own little world a lot of the time,” he said.

“He doesn’t worry about a lot of things that are going on outside and I think he’s focused on coming here and getting a job done.

“He hasn’t played a lot of Davis Cup in the last couple of years. He wants to be here, he wants to play and for me to have him at my disposal … it strengthens our team a lot.”

Kyrgios a 50/50 chance of lining up against Slovakia

Kyrgios is Australia’s top-ranked player, jumping to a career-high 15th in the world on Monday, but is still a 50/50 prospect to turn out in the world group play-off against Slovakia from Friday.

Kyrgios has played only four Davis Cup ties since making his debut in 2013. Photo: Getty

A hip injury forced Kyrgios to withdraw from his third-round US Open match and Hewitt said he was a 50 per cent chance of being fit in time for the tie in Sydney, but added early signs were “very encouraging”.

“It was a good hit-out from Nick today. It’s going to be management the next three to four days with him,” Hewitt said Monday before a probable decision on Wednesday night.

“Hopefully the hip pulls up well, but we’ve just got to take it day by day and [weigh] up how much grass-court practice he needs as well to be able to go out there and play as close to 100 per cent as possible come Friday.”

Kyrgios-Tomic feud is behind them: Hewitt

Kyrgios made his Davis Cup debut in the doubles as an 18-year-old in 2013 but has only played four ties total, with a 3-4 win-loss record in singles matches.

Questions have been asked about how passionate he is about representing the country after Tomic accused him of faking illness to get out of a tie against the United States in March.

Kyrgios fired back at Tomic at the time, making fun of him for having the fastest loss in the ATP record books, but Hewitt said the feud was in the past.

What feud? … Nick Kyrgios and Bernard Tomic. Photo: Getty

If Kyrgios can get fit in time, he will link with Australia’s second-highest-ranked male player for the first time since 2013.

The world number 21, who boasts an impressive 16-4 record in Davis Cup singles, and Kyrgios have not played in the same Australian team for the past three years for various reasons, including injury and ill-discipline.

But the addition of the pair on a grass court in Sydney would give Australia a clear edge over Slovakia.

“They’re both well inside the top 20 in the world now [and] they’re both quality players, especially on this kind of surface,” Hewitt said.

“We saw at Wimbledon how dangerous these guys can be and they’ve both made the quarter-finals at Wimbledon on grass before.”