Reigning champion Australia has been eliminated from the Davis Cup, defeated by Sweden in a first round tie here today.
Sweden took an unassailable three rubbers to one advantage after evergreen Jonas Bjorkman trounced Australian Mark Philippoussis in straight sets at Memorial Drive today.
Bjorkman triumphed 7-5 6-2 6-2 just a day after performing a heroic role in Sweden's epic doubles victory yesterday.
Bjorkman yesterday spent four-and-a-half hours in on-court temperatures nearing 50 degrees Celsius to help Sweden claim the crucial doubles match.
Such was Bjorkman's form yesterday, Swedish coach Mats Wilander summoned him for today's reverse singles encounter realising victory against Philippoussis would seal the tie.
The world No.28 duly delivered in impressive fashion, frustrating the Australian with consistent serving and brilliant ground strokes.
Philippoussis also lost his singles match to Thomas Enqvist in straight sets on Friday to cap a fall from grace for the man hailed a hero after Australia's Cup final win last November.
The Victorian today cut an agitated figure and threatened to implode during the third set when he argued several line calls and was engaged in animated discussion with the chair umpire during a change of ends.
Mats: Stress got to Scud
09feb04
Herald Sun
SWEDISH captain Mats Wilander said last night the pressure of an Australian Open
campaign had caught up with a jaded Mark Philippoussis and dragged Australia to
a traumatic failure in its Davis Cup defence.
Philippoussis said he was all out of answers and gutted by his tired efforts in
an unconvincing 7-5 6-2 6-2 defeat by wily Swedish substitute singles player
Jonas Bjorkman.
It cost Tennis Australia the chance to host a million-dollar-plus quarter-final
against the United States.
Australia's Davis Cup final hero of November battened down the hatches for
criticism of his form and approach.
A third consecutive straight-sets loss ended an Australian summer circuit that
had promised so much and ended with a 4-1 upset win by Sweden.
Both Philippoussis, who will debate how long he will spend away from the tour on
a surfing safari in California, and the Davis Cup will now leave the country.
A passionate and well-organised Swedish team without a player ranked in the top
25 won its nation's first tie in Australia.
Philippoussis, who said this weekend had felt like "the twilight zone", had been
adamant after his sluggish loss to Thomas Enqvist on Friday that he had not been
distracted by criticism by former Davis Cup players over his friendship with
singer Delta Goodrem.
The world No. 9 said he had been disappointed that former Davis Cup winners Pat
Cash and John Alexander and teammate Todd Woodbridge had made the comments about
him so close to a cup tie.
"I thought (before the tie) the whole Australian team was vulnerable because
they have been scrutinised by certain people for four weeks," Wilander said,
after pulling his second selection masterstroke of the tie by substituting
Bjorkman for first-day loser Robin Soderling.
"To play one of the grand slams in your home country, thinking you have a chance
to win, is a lot of pressure. I can't imagine what it's like.
"You go in very pumped up, as Mark did, and it's hard to get it back two weeks
later. I also took into account the added pressure of defending the cup, and I
always thought we could win."
Australian captain John Fitzgerald said he thought the external pressures on
Philippoussis were "unfortunate and sad in a few ways".
Fitzgerald put the Scud's form down to fatigue from a long campaign that he said
was another argument for a first-round bye the following year for Davis Cup
winners.
The Australians became the seventh defending champion to lose in the first round
of the competition since the challenge round was abolished in 1972.
Philippoussis committed himself to a promotion-relegation tie in September,
against a country to be decided.
Australia must win the tie to stay in the world group.
The 3-1 score led Lleyton Hewitt to surrender a place in the dead rubber,
leaving until September his bid for an unparalleled 24th Davis Cup singles win
by an Australian.
"You feel gutted because it's Davis Cup. There is a lot of pressure, and I will
put it behind me and have a holiday for a couple of weeks," Philippoussis said.
"One day you're the hero and the next day everyone jumps on you. That's how it
is here, unfortunately.
"I went into the match trying to be pumped and trying to do things different. I
gave it my all for those two matches."
The normally low-key Australian admitted he had tried to stir his emotions in
the hope of improving his tennis by haranguing umpire Javier Moreno-Perez to
change a line judge during, and after, a game in which he held serve for 2-1 in
the third set.
The Spanish umpire called a code violation on the Australian when he hurled his
racquet into the court after falling 2-4 behind in the third set. He did not
receive a handshake from the beaten player after Bjorkman had served out with
certainty.
His anger was at least preferable in the eyes of many Australian fans to his
moments of lethargy during the tie.
"I was trying to get something going, just let some frustration out. Maybe it
would do me some good, but it didn't work," Philippoussis said.
Fitzgerald said: "It showed how much he cared. He was trying as much as he
could."
Philippoussis did not break serve in either of his two cup matches, winning only
27 of his returning points in six sets as opponents capitalised on his slow
movement and inability to reach a net position.
Enqvist sealed a 4-1 win with a 7-6 (10-8) 3-6 6-4 defeat of Australian
substitute Wayne Arthurs in a dead rubber.
Fitzgerald said playing it was "farcical", and continued his pressure on cup
organisers to cancel matches after a tie is decided.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scud getting too pumped
Doug Robertson
09feb04
Herald Sun
FORMER Australian player and coach Jason Stoltenberg believes Mark Philippoussis
should change his match preparation.
"He struggles to find the balance of getting pumped up, but staying relaxed,"
Stoltenberg said.
"I think he needs to work on his pre-match routine, so that each time he comes
out, he's going to feel good.
"Mark's his own man and I've said to a few people that Mark's a very happy man
at the moment. All of us can get distracted at some time or other, but because
it's Mark, he's a slightly easier target.
"Mark may do things differently to others, it's just his way of dealing with
things."
John Alexander, who had tipped Philippoussis to bounce back with a vengeance
after Friday's defeat, said Bjorkman quickly unsettled the powerful Aussie.
"Mark became terribly frustrated at not being able to get into the match,"
Alexander said. "Mark had said over the weekend that he has played a lot of
tennis and he felt fatigued. Perhaps he does need a couple of weeks off, but the
others have played just as much tennis."
Six-time Wimbledon doubles champion Mark Woodforde said he didn't think
Philippoussis needed to make many adjustments.
"Jonas had him restricted out there, it was like Mark was shackled," Woodforde
said.
"It was frustrating to watch because he (Philippoussis) is obviously just off
(rhythm) at the moment.
"Whenever you lose, you think you've got to make changes. If you win, you think
everything's fine. But I'm sure he'll break out of it because he is too good a
player not to."
Cup talent pool not so deep: Fitzy
By DOUG ROBERTSON
10feb04
INJURY to any of the frontline Aussies would plunge Australia into a lean period
in Davis Cup competition unless highly-regarded teenagers Todd Reid and Chris
Guccione develop more rapidly than expected, captain John Fitzgerald said.
Reid, however, has had an early set-back with the Sydney-sider and Davis Cup
squad baseliner going home with a sore throat and suspected virus. It's thought
Reid would be screened for the debilitating glandular fever but neither Tennis
Australia or his manager knew the outcome of tests when contacted yesterday.
Reid is certain to be considered for the Davis Cup play-offs in September so the
thought of him contracting glandular fever unsettled Fitzgerald.
Solemn after Australia's humiliating 1-4 first-round tie loss to Sweden in
Adelaide, Fitzgerald stopped short of saying Australia's talent pool was
desperately short. But he stressed it was "very, very important" to think
outside the obvious to find some Cup options, admitting he was considering
calling up unheralded "late bloomers" for national service. "I think we have to
be aware that if we get a knee injury to one of the star performers we do have
some short-term problems," Fitzgerald said. "There's a couple of older guys who
I'm actually interested in ... a little bit older than our juniors, they're sort
of late bloomers in their 20s, but I'd probably prefer not to name them.
"There's also a group (youngsters) in the AIS with good potential but the
numbers are not that perfect at the moment; we need more numbers to compete with
other nations."
Tennis Australia rates Reid so highly as a Cup prospect it has engaged South
Australian coach Brod Dyke as a travelling mentor when Reid sets off soon on the
overseas tour. Fitzgerald said it would take "probably" four years for the best
of the teenage talent to rise to Cup standard, with Reid, 19, and Guccione, 18,
the only foreseeable exceptions.
"They're probably the ones who, if you had to beat, would probably step up
next," Fitzgerald said.
"Then you get a little bit of variety (for selection), you get a few options and
then if you get a couple of injuries those boys are there. I wouldn't say it's
desperate but we're pretty lucky we've got a team like we've got at the moment
but that could change very quickly.
"Two of those guys (Arthurs, 33 next month, Todd Woodbridge, 33 in April) are
into their 30s now."
The Advertiser
-------------------------------------------------
Davis Cup format to stay
10feb04
TENNIS officials today sympathised with Australia's rapid fall from Davis Cup
champions to first round flops, but reminded John Fitzgerald and his players
that that is the nature of the competition.
Davis Cup chief Bill Babcock suggested little would be done to change the system
in which the champion puts its trophy at risk within months of winning it.
Australian captain Fitzgerald questioned the format on Sunday when the champions
were sent tumbling out of the competition with a 4-1 loss to unseeded Sweden in
Adelaide, 70 days after Mark Philippoussis sealed Australia's victory in last
year's final against Spain.
Fitzgerald suggested that the two finalists from the previous year be given a
first round bye.
"It's always tough to go from heaven to hell in a short period but that is the
nature of our sport," said Babcock, the International Tennis Federation's (ITF)
executive director of the Davis Cup.
"It's tough to win the trophy and to keep it is hard, and so it should be. We
would never want to do anything to take away from the competition.
"It's very tough on Australia to have not had long to savour victory. But
they've had longer than most No.1 players.
"It's a fair kind of comment and a review that the Davis Cup committee always
takes seriously, especially when the comments come from someone like John or
Tennis Australia.
"But these aren't new ideas, that's been in the mix for some time."
Babcock said a first round bye would reduce the Davis Cup at a time when the ITF
are looking to find ways to expand it in an already crowded calendar.
The fact the proposal has been around for some time and not been acted upon
indicates the current format won't change in a hurry.
"We'd almost rather expand than reduce the competition if we had our way in the
calendar," said Babcock.
"One of the difficulties is a bye does reduce the competition and I think it's
important for sponsorship and all the other interests that are important to
keeping the competition alive, we'd rather have more than less."
Less than 12 months after winning the cup, Australia will face a match later
this year to keep their place in the 16-nation elite world group.
"I'm not sure if it's structured that well if, inside a calendar year, you're
playing for your spot in the world group after you've won," Fitzgerald said
after the loss in Adelaide.
Babcock said the Davis Cup committee will discuss the format at their next
meeting in April, as they always do, but hinted there is little hope of giving
the finalists a bye.
"I wouldn't want to predict, it's been considered before already," he said.
Babcock dismissed any possibility of a return to the pre-1972 format in which
the defending champions automatically qualified for the final.
The Advertiser