Davis Cup captain Lleyton Hewitt says Jordan Thompson should crack the world top 50 before long and cement himself as an elite player.

Thompson lit up Kooyong with a straight sets win over Czech No.1 Jiri Vesely in opening singles rubber of the Davis Cup tie, which Nick Kyrgios backed up with a crushing victory against Jan Satral to give Australia a 2-0 lead.

John Peers and Sam Groth will attempt to wrap up the world group first round tie on Saturday in the doubles, with the Czech pairing uncertain after an injury to veteran Radek Stepanek.

A win would see Australia seal a quarter-final berth with Switzerland or the United States.

Thompson got his Davis Cup start after Australia’s No.2 Bernard Tomic said he was unavailable, with the call-up capping an impressive summer for the 22-year-old Sydneysider.

Thompson made the singles quarter-finals at the Brisbane International beating highly-ranked Spaniard David Ferrer and won the doubles title.

He came from two-sets down to win his first round match at the Australian Open, beating world No.41 Joao Sousa, and reached a career-high ranking of 65.

Hewitt said he was “quietly confident” Thompson would get Australia off to a winning start.

“He’s impressed me all summer,” Hewitt said.

“The way he’s gone up the rankings the last two or three years, he’s gone step by step and has been confident at each level and built on that.

“It’s a totally different pathway to the likes of Nick.”

Hewitt said there were areas in Thompson’s game that he needed to work on but was capable of climbing into the top 50 by the end of the year.

“Once you do that you’re on the tour full time and are in all the big tournaments.

“He’s got a good solid base there’s just a couple of areas he can work on.”